Jonny Depp and Amber Heard Updates

Anastasia Carlon, Staff Writer

Intimate details about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s volatile relationship, including domestic and substance abuse allegations, have been made public during the former couple’s defamation lawsuit. 

Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed she wrote about being a domestic abuse survivor. Despite never being mentioned by name, Depp’s lawyers said that references to Depp and Heard’s previous abuse allegations following their 2017 divorce were clear. Thus damaging their client’s reputation and career. Heard filed a $100 million countersuit, claiming Depp and his legal team defamed her by calling her allegations false.

With four weeks down and two more to go, Depp completed his time on the stand. Heard began her testimony last week, on May 1, and will retake the stand when the trial returns from a weeklong break on Monday, May 16. Closing arguments will be on Friday, May 27; like the rest of the trial, the conclusion will be aired live on CourtTV and Law&Crime Network.

There have been allegations of abuse, sexual assault, a severed finger, infidelity, and more. The case is still ongoing.

Depp and Heard have both accused each other of physical and verbal abuse throughout the trial. Depp alleged that Heard has punched, kicked, thrown items at him, and severed the tip of his finger during their turbulent relationship; while Heard alleged that Depp has hit her, slammed her against walls, pulled out patches of her hair, and sexually assaulted her while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Dr. Laurel Anderson, the former couple’s therapist, stated the relationship was mutually abusive in a pre-recorded deposition shared in court, an analysis that has proved isolating.

Heard’s first witness, a psychologist and interpersonal violence expert named Dr. Dawn Hughes, for example, denied that mutual abuse occurred between Heard and Depp, explaining that she witnessed “very clear psychological traumatic effects” during her evaluations of Heard as a result of “intimate partner violence.”

On the other hand, Dr. Darcy Sterling, a relationship therapist and clinical social worker, previously told EW.com, “Both partners were egregious in their behaviors, and neither seems to realize their culpability. Things are always easier to make sense of when one person is clearly a victim and the other a perpetrator… In my 27 years of practicing as a therapist, the vast majority of relationships I’ve seen show problems in both partners.”

This story will be ongoing as the trial resumes on May 16.