The defamation trial between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp has started after a week’s break, with the 36-year-old Aquaman actress taking the stand on Monday.
While the trial has been live-streamed since it began in Fairfax, Virginia in April, those paying close attention to the day-to-day operations of the courtroom have surely observed that Depp, 58, refuses to look at his ex-wife.
“Mr. Depp hasn’t looked at you once this entire trial, has he?” Camille Vasquez, one of the Pirates of the Caribbean actor’s attorneys, asked the actress while cross-examining her, to which she replied: “Not that I’ve noticed, no.”
“You’ve looked at him many times, haven’t you?” Vasquez continued, with Heard telling the attorney, “Yes, I have.”
Vasquez then followed with, “You know exactly why Mr. Depp won’t look back at you, don’t you?” which The Stand actress confirmed with, “I do.”
“He promised you you would never see his eyes again, is that true?” Vasquez asked while Heard told the court, “I don’t recall if he said that.”
The counsel for Depp then played audio from one of the last occasions the estranged couple saw one other, in which Heard asks Depp to hug him and say goodbye.
Despite having filed for a restraining order at the time, Heard “summoned” Depp to a hotel in San Francisco in 2016, a meeting Depp previously claimed he went in the hopes “she would withdraw her lies” about him, according to his counsel.
“He’s kept that promise, hasn’t he?” Vasquez asked, referring to Depp refusing to look at Heard, to which she responded, “As far as I know, he cannot look at me.”
“He won’t look at you, right Ms. Heard?” said Vasquez, with Heard replying, “He can’t.”
The actor “does not have the courage to even look at Ms. Heard,” according to a spokesman for Heard, who previously issued a statement regarding how the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas alum appeared to be conducting himself in court.
“If Mr. Depp was truly innocent, why has he repeatedly apologized to Ms. Heard and promised to put the’monster away for good,” Heard’s spokesperson said earlier in May, adding that one of the actor’s “disappointments” is his “inability to distinguish fact from fiction — a malady which appears to have spread to his legal team.”
“That same team is so panicked they are fighting tooth and nail to prevent compelling evidence and photos from being introduced,” said Heard’s spokesperson. “Small wonder Mr. Depp does not have the fortitude or courage to even look at Ms. Heard at all throughout the proceedings — as he could not in the U.K. trial — and, instead he doodles and snickers.”
Cliff Owen – CNP
Depp is suing Heard for defamation over an op-ed she published for The Washington Post in 2018 on surviving domestic violence, despite the fact that she never mentioned Depp by name. Depp first filed the $50 million lawsuit in March of this year.
As he strives to defend his name in the trial, which is being televised live on numerous sites, he testified that his “objective is the truth.” Heard said in a statement before the trial that “Hopefully, after this matter is over, both Johnny and I will be able to move on. I’ve always had feelings for Johnny, and it hurts me a lot to have to live out the events of our prior lives in front of the public.”
Back in November 2020, Depp lost his highly publicized U.K. libel lawsuit case against British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.” The court upheld the outlet’s claims as being “substantially true” and Heard testified to back up the claims. In March 2021, his attempt to overturn the decision was overruled.