Featured Image Credit: Law and Crime Network/YouTube/Cathy Russon/Twitter
Topics: Amber Heard, Johnny Depp, US News
Daisy Phillipson
Topics: Amber Heard, Johnny Depp, US News
Johnny Depp has explained why he lied about how he severed the top of his finger.
The film star took the stand as his defamation lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard continues in Virginia.
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million (£38.2m) over abuse claims she made in a 2018 article in The Washington Post.
Today, 20 April, he discussed the 2015 incident in Australia whereby the top of his finger was sliced off, which he alleges happened as a result of Heard throwing vodka bottles at him during a fight.
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However, Depp said that when he was taken to the emergency room to be treated, he lied to the doctor and said he’d smashed it in some ‘large accordion doors’ at the Australian home he’d been staying in.
When asked why he lied, he said: “I lied because I didn't want to disclose that it had been Ms Heard that had thrown a vodka bottle at me and then took my finger off. I didn't want to get her in trouble...
“I tried to just keep things as copacetic and as easy as possible for everything. I did not want to put her name in that mix."
Depp was then asked if he’d told his personal doctor, David Kipper, about what had really happened, to which he said: “Yes.”
Earlier in his testimony, Depp was asked why he stayed with his Rum Diary co-star despite the alleged 'abuse', and he responded by citing the relationship between his parents.
"I stayed, I suppose because my father stayed. I suppose because I had been in that relationship with Vanessa Paradis, that was lost,” he said.
"I didn't want to fail. I wanted to try to make it work. I thought maybe I could help her. I thought maybe I could bring her around.”
He continued: "I stayed because, of course I didn't want to fail. I didn't want to hurt anyone, especially Miss Heard. I didn't want to break her heart.
"I remember very well that when my father left and my mother very soon had that first attempt at suicide that I woke up to. That visual in my head... that was a direct result of my father's leaving.
"Miss Heard had spoken of suicide on a couple of occasions, so that also becomes a factor. That's also something that always lives in the back of your brain, and that you fear.
"Many times when I would try to leave, she would stop me at the elevator with the security guards crying and screaming, 'I can't live without you, I'm gonna die.' She had to get out."
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