Amber Heard and Johnny Depp.Reuters/Reuters
Depp's sister, Christi Dembrowski, who is three years older than the 58-year-old actor, was the first witness to testify in the trial. She took the stand and detailed their experience with their mother, whom she described as "high strung, nervous" and often "angry."
"As we were older, we decided that once we had our own home, that we were never going to repeat in our own home anything similar to our childhood," Dembrowski testified.
When Depp and Heard moved in together, Dembrowski testified, his mood changed. He seemed "sadder," she said. Dembrowski said Depp and Heard often argued and she made sure there was always an extra hotel room booked when they traveled together.
"I saw a repeating pattern happening in life. When we were kids, and arguments and fighting would start to happen, our first thing was to hide and get away from it," Dembrowski said. "Since I recognized what felt to me a pattern that was a repeat, a pattern from his childhood, I wanted to make sure there was a place he could do just that."
She said that Heard — who was in her 20s at the time of the relationship — derided Depp and called him "an old fat man."
When Depp told Heard that Dior wanted to do a campaign with him, her reaction was "disbelief and disgust," Dembrowski said.
Kate James worked as Heard's personal assistant for three years, between 2012 and 2015.
In her recorded deposition played during the trial, James said after her position became full-time, Heard screamed at her when she pushed back against the $50,000 salary Heard offered, which she said was about half of what she usually makes.
"She leapt out of her chair and put her face approximately four inches from my face, spitting in my face, 'How dare I ask for the salary I'm asking for,'" James said.
According to James, Heard flew into irrational rages on numerous occasions. She described one incident when Heard yelled at her for leaving some magazines out in the house that were supposed to be stored in the garage. When Heard found the magazines lying out, she went "absolutely ballistic," James testified.
James couldn't recall exactly what Heard said but said Heard went into a "blind rage ... screaming, yelling abuse."
James said Heard also regularly screamed at her over the phone and would send "a barrage of abusive text messages" to her, often in the early hours of the morning.
"Between 2 and 4 a.m., the barrage would start, all incoherent, not really making sense," James said.
She said that Heard "often appeared intoxicated."
Meanwhile, James had only nice things to say about Depp, whom she described as "a total Southern gentleman."
Dr. David Kipper, Depp's private doctor, described his experience on the night the actor's finger was severed.
The doctor was staying on an island in Australia on March 7, 2015. Dr. Kipper, along with Depp's personal nurse Debbie Lloyd, were treating Depp for what Kipper diagnosed as opioid addiction.
Depp sent Dr. Kipper a text that night saying his finger was severed, according to records shown in court.
"I cut the top of my middle finger off. What should I do? Except of course go to a hospital," Depp wrote to Dr. Kipper. "I'm so embarrassed for jumping into anything with her."
When Dr. Kipper arrived, he treated the wound and took him to the emergency room, he testified. He instructed Depp's security guards to look for the rest of the finger, which a chef found on the floor of the kitchen area, where Depp and Heard were fighting. One of Depp's staff members brought the finger to the emergency room, Lloyd said. It was ultimately reattached.
Depp texted Dr. Kipper several days after the incident, once again blaming himself for the incident.
"Thank you for everything. I have chopped off my left middle finger as a reminder that I should never cut my finger off again!!" Depp wrote. "I love you, brother. Johnny."
Later in the trial, when Depp took the stand, the actor testified that during a heated argument with Heard his finger was severed.
Although Depp said he had been sober from drinking at the time, he noted the stress of the situation caused him to drink. When Heard got upset that he was drinking, she threw two bottles at him with one making contact with his hand, slicing off his middle right finger.
"It made contact and it shattered everywhere," he said. "I honestly didn't feel the pain at first, what I felt was heat and I felt as if something were dripping down my hand. Then I looked down and realized that the tip of my finger had been severed and I was looking directly at my bones sticking out and the meaty portion of the inside of your finger."
Depp said he initially lied about how the tip of his right middle finger was cut off rather than telling them Heard threw a vodka bottle at him.
He said on the stand, "I didn't want to get her in trouble. I tried to just keep things as copacetic and easy as possible for everyone. I didn't want to put her into that mix."
Sean Bett, who oversees Depp's security, testified that starting in 2014, Depp and Heard began getting into heated fights on a regular basis.
"I said, 'Amber, this can't continue. You guys are either going to kill each other or wind up in jail,'" Bett said. "And with tears and everything, she said, 'But I love him and I'm not going to lose him.'"
When they argued, Bett usually drove Depp away from the penthouse he shared with Heard to his home in West Hollywood. They'd reconcile again in hours or days, Bett said.
"They would reconcile by talking. She'd have candles lit, a bottle of wine open," Bett said. "Depending on the night, she'd text me and have me pick up food at different restaurants."
Keenan Wyatt, a sound technician who has worked on Hollywood films for 35 years, including Depp's "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, testified about a 2014 incident with Heard.
In court, Wyatt said during a private jet flight from Boston to Los Angeles it seemed like Heard was giving Depp "the cold shoulder" on the flight. At one point, Wyatt said he approached Heard and "said something to the effect of, 'You know he cares about you.'"
Wyatt said Heard responded by yelling at him.
"All of a sudden she snapped and started yelling at me. 'How dare you talk to me? Get away from me.' So I went back to my seat and minded my own business," he said. "She was abruptly loud. It was a quiet plane – all of a sudden it got very loud."
Dr. Shannon Curry, a forensic clinical psychologist who evaluated Heard for 12 hours in December over two days, testified in court that Heard "did not have PTSD" and appeared to be "grossly exaggerating" symptoms.
"The results of Ms. Heard's evaluation supported two diagnoses: borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder," Curry, who also analyzed earlier treatment records, recordings, and other documentation Heard's lawyers provided, said.
Curry said she concluded that Heard had "a very sophisticated way of minimizing any personal problems," while having "a lot of inner hostility" and externalizing blame.
Terence Dougherty, the general counsel and chief operating officer of the ACLU, said in a recorded deposition that the organization received four donations from Heard, which totaled $1.3 million, Insider reported.
However, when Depp and Heard reached a divorce settlement in 2016, the actress announced that she would donate the entirety of her $7 million settlement to charity. She said the money would be split between two organizations: the American Civil Liberties Union and Children's Hospital Los Angeles, which meant the ACLU should have received $3.5 million.
Only one of those payments was from Heard directly: a payment for $350,000 in August 2016. The other payments were a $100,000 check from Depp, $500,000 from a donor-advised fund at Vanguard, an investment management company, and $350,000 from a donor-advised fund at Fidelity, another investment management company.
Dougherty said the ACLU believed the $500,000 Vanguard payment was from a fund set up by Heard's former partner Elon Musk.
Later in the trial, when Heard took the stand, the actress said she still planned to donate all of the money she promised, but Depp's lawsuit — which demands up to $50 million in damages — stalled her payments.
Heard added, "I would love him to stop suing me so I can."
When asked by her lawyer in direct examination whether the donations had a deadline, Heard said: "There are none. They understand."
Starling Jenkins, a longtime member of Depp's security staff, testified that the morning after Heard's 30th birthday on April 21, 2016, he was informed by Heard that she "got in a fight with Johnny last night" and threw his phone, wallet, credit cards, and passport over the balcony and onto the street below.
Jenkins said he then used the Find My iPhone program to track down Depp's phone to Skid Row, a neighborhood known for its homeless population, not far from Depp and Heard's apartment building.
Jenkins said he approached a homeless man about the phone who "was honest" and "returned it."
"I gave him a reward for it: $420, chicken tacos, chips, apples, and Fiji water," Jenkins said.
While testifying remotely, Jack Whigham, Depp's talent manager, said Disney's president of production Sean Bailey and "Pirates of the Caribbean" producer Jerry Bruckheimer verbally sealed a deal around 2016 to pay Depp $22.5 million for the sixth movie in the franchise.
However, Whigham was never able to revive the deal following Heard's allegations in her 2018 Washington Post op-ed, which detailed her experience with domestic abuse. Depp was never named in the article.
Whigham testified that, since the fall of 2018, Depp has been relegated to roles in lower-paying independent movies. He also hasn't filmed a movie since 2020.
Earlier in the trial, when Depp took the stand, he spoke about having wanted to close out his Captain Jack Sparrow character in the franchise.
"A franchise can last only so long. And there's a way to end a franchise like that," he said. "And I thought the characters should have a way out, to end the franchise on a very good note. And I planned on continuing until it was time to stop."
"I didn't quite understand how, after that long relationship, and quite a successful relationship, certainly for Disney, that suddenly I was guilty until proven innocent," Depp added.
While doing press of "Top Gun: Maverick," Bruckheimer said there were no plans for Depp to return to the "Pirates" franchise "at this point."
Dr. Dawn Hughes, a clinical and forensic psychologist, testified in court that she diagnosed Heard with PTSD based on "intimate partner violence" suffered at Depp's hands.
She based this on 29 hours' worth of clinical interviews with Heard, as well as her review of court transcripts, notes taken by Heard's previous therapists, interviews with therapists, and other records.
Dr. Hughes said Depp forced Heard into oral sex during "drug-fueled rages" where he tried to dominate her.
"When Mr. Depp was drunk or high, he'd throw her on the bed, rip off her nightgown, and try to have sex with her. There were times when he forced her to give him oral sex when he was angry," Dr. Hughes said. "These weren't in loving moments. These were angry moments."
Dr. Hughes believed the level of control and surveillance Depp had over Heard's life was a marker of "intimate partner violence," which made it harder for Heard to leave the relationship.
"Even though she yelled and hit him and said some terrible things to him, it was never able to shift the balance of power in the relationship," Dr. Hughes said.
Dr. Hughes also testified that Heard's heart wasn't in the relationship with Elon Musk, whom she started dating just weeks after breaking up with Depp.
"I was heartbroken. My soul was dead. Felt nothing then," Heard told Hughes about her relationship with Musk, which ended in March 2018, according to Hughes' notes.
iO Tillett Wright, an author and former friend of Heard's, served as best man at Depp and Heard's 2015 wedding. In prerecorded testimony, Tillett Wright said that Depp made a comment about physically assaulting his new wife after the two wed in the Bahamas.
"I was walking with Johnny and congratulating him that they pulled it off," Tillett Wright testified, adding that Depp then said: "We're married now. I can punch her in the face and nobody can do anything about it."
Tillett Wright, who said in court that his friendship with Heard ended about a year ago, added that he was sometimes called in to help mediate intense fights between the couple and testified that Depp would get "misogynistic and cruel" under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.
Tillett Wright said he witnessed Heard and Depp argue with each other but said he never saw either get physically violent with the other.
Raquel "Rocky" Pennington, a former friend of Heard's, said in a recorded deposition that she witnessed part of the couple's last fight on May 21, 2016, which led to Heard filing for divorce and getting a restraining order against Depp.
Pennington said she received a text message from Heard, asking her to come over to her apartment. By this time, Heard and Depp had been living apart for about a month.
When Pennington arrived, she said the door was locked so she got a master key. When she got in, shePenningtonsaid she heard an "irate" Depp yelling and Heard "calling for help." Pennington said Heard was saying "help me," which "had never happened before."
Pennington added that she went up to Depp and put her hands on his chest, telling him to "stop" and "just trying to calm him down." She said Depp hit her hands away, so she went over to Heard to shield her from him because she was afraid he would hurt her.
All the while, Pennington said, Depp kept screaming at Heard, who was crying.
"I don't remember everything that he said but the thing that sticks out the most was just yelling at her to 'get up,' to 'get the fuck up,'" Pennington said, noting in the deposition that she and Heard are no longer close.
She said eventually Depp left after his security entered the apartment.
Heard's sister Whitney Henriquez testified on the stand about a fight she witnessed between Heard and Depp shortly after the two stars were married. The fight escalated to the point that Henriquez found herself caught in the middle of it, she said.
Henriquez testified that after Heard discovered text messages on Depp's phone from a former girlfriend, Depp, who was drunk according to Henriquez, became angry. The two began arguing with Heard yelling at him from the mezzanine level of their apartment, Henriquez added.
"He's calling her a fucking whore, fucking cunt, used-up trash bag," Henriquez said on the stand. "They were saying horrible things to one another. She was calling him old and fat. It was a fight."
Henriquez went to the top of the stairs to try to calm her sister down, she said. Depp ran up after her and struck Henriquez in the back, Henriquez testified. Then Heard stepped in, yelling: "Don't hit my fucking sister!" and punched Depp in the face, according to Henriquez.
Soon after that event, Henriquez said, Depp asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement. She refused.
"It was after this point that Johnny had accused me of selling stories to the media, which is absolutely untrue," Henriquez said.
Heard's former makeup artist Melanie Inglessis testified that she covered up a bruise and split lip the star allegedly sustained from a fight with Depp in 2015 before she went on "The Late Late Show with James Corden."
"We covered the discoloration, the bruises, with a slightly heavier concealer," Inglessis said. "One that has a little more peach undertone, which I normally don't use on Amber, but peach cancels blue. So I did that under the eyes."
Inglessis testified that she didn't see any injuries to Heard the night before when she did her makeup, but the following day when getting her ready for the show Heard had bruising.
Inglessis said Heard "had injuries" on her face, including some "discoloration" under both of her eyes and a split lip. She said there was "a little more of a gash" under her right eye, with "blue and yellow discoloration."
Kristina Sexton, an acting coach who worked with Heard between 2011 and 2017, said in recorded testimony that as Heard and Depp's relationship progressed "and the fighting got heavier, I would have to build in time because she'd be sobbing at the beginning of sessions, and we couldn't work until we got her together."
At the start of Heard and Depp's relationship, Sexton said, she witnessed the couple being "incredibly lovey-dovey and passionate" and "always together in a positive way." But as time went on, Sexton said, she started seeing less of them together and would often hear loud arguments while inside their home for acting sessions.
"It went from being like a normal couple to very tension-filled, especially those last few months that they were together," Sexton said. "I would say that last year they were together, probably 80 to 90% of our sessions began with her crying."
In her deposition, Sexton said she could tell when Heard's tears were genuine because "ironically, she has a little difficulty crying acting-wise."
According to a recorded deposition, Josh Drew, who was formerly married to Heard's former friend Raquel "Rocky" Pennington, said Depp screamed and spat in his face on the night Depp allegedly attacked Heard in May 2016.
"He came in, caught eyes with me right away, and bee-lined for me, screaming, cursing, spitting in my face," Drew, who at the time lived in the same building, testified.
"I walked calmly to leave, realized I had forgotten my keys and dog so walked back to turn around to go get both. He stayed and followed with me, walking, pacing, screaming, cursing, spitting in my face," Drew continued.
In a recorded deposition, Depp's former money manager Joel Mandel, who was Depp's money manager between 1999 and 2016 before he was fired by the actor, revealed the actor's huge spending habits when he earned more than $600 million at the time.
Mandel said Depp's spending included the following:
Depp later sued Mandel's firm, alleging it had drastically mismanaged his finances. They settled the lawsuit in 2018.
Tracey Jacobs, Depp's agent for 30 years until 2016 when the actor terminated their contract, said in a pre-recorded deposition shown during the trial, that Depp once asked her to kill a version of the 2018 film "London Fields" over nude scenes that featured Heard.
She said Depp sent her a series of angry all-caps emails instructing her to shut down the film.
"It is in Amber's contract that there will be no nudity and her fucking agents are weak and insipid," Depp said in the email, shown in court. "Will you please call these motherfuckers and you and Jake get on this immediately?"
In a follow-up email, Depp added: "It must be shut down or I will sue them eighteen ways from fucking Sunday. These people are nobodies in this business and they should be made to understand that we will ruin them instantly."
At the time, Heard filed a lawsuit against the film's producers, Christopher Hanley and his wife Roberta, for violating a "nudity rider" included in her contract by shooting footage that she had no knowledge of until after she had left the set.
Jacobs also said in her testimony that over time, her working relationship with Depp became more complicated due to his behavior such as "showing up late to set consistently, on virtually every movie,"
"I would get yelled at. I would never say to him, 'You're a difficult client.' I would never say that," she added. "But I would tell him you've got to stop this, this is hurting you. And it did."
She continued that he often needed his lines fed to him through an earpiece and that at the height of his financial woes in 2016, he demanded a $20 million handout from UTA.
In a recorded deposition, Ellen Barkin, who dated Depp for less than a year in 1994, said the actor was "jealous" and "controlling" during their relationship. Barkin also described an incident when Depp threw a wine bottle in her direction.
While they were filming "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" in 1997, Barkin said she witnessed Depp throw a bottle of wine across his hotel room in the direction of where she and others were gathered.
Barkin said "a fight was going on" between Depp and his friends but she isn't sure why he threw the bottle, noting that it didn't hit her or anyone else.
As Insider previously reported, Depp filed a defamation suit against Heard in response to an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post that detailed her experience with domestic violence. Depp's name wasn't mentioned, but the article was widely interpreted as being about him.
According to Depp's $50 million lawsuit, Heard fabricated an incident where she accused Depp of beating her and had, in fact, verbally and physically assaulted him on numerous occasions.
Heard denied the claims and countersued for $100 million, alleging Depp physically beat her numerous times in their relationship, often while intoxicated on drugs and alcohol.
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