Amber Heard testifies Johnny Depp was erratic and 'hallucinating' as she helped him during a week-long drug detox on his Bahamas island
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Jacob Shamsian
May 6, 2022, 02:34 IST
Actor Amber Heard reacts on the stand in the courtroom at Fairfax County Circuit Court during a defamation case against her by ex-husband, actor Johnny Depp in Fairfax, Virginia, U.S., May 5, 2022.Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via REUTERS
Johnny Depp went through an intensive detox period in 2014 and was "hallucinating," Amber Heard testified.
Heard said he needed treatment for using cocaine and alcohol as well as painkillers.
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In August 2014, Johnny Depp's drug addiction had reached a low point. On the advice of his doctor, he flew to his 45-acre private island in the Bahamas. In his beach home, Depp renounced drugs and tried to spend a week without them.
But his ex-wife, Amber Heard, said in sworn testimony on Thursday that Depp's emotions became highly erratic during the detox. She said he would go from becoming mercurial, to suspicious, to depressed, to furious, to grateful.
"I felt like I was constantly conforming to his mood," Heard said.
Heard said she felt "in over my head" but made the trip — along with a private nurse Depp hired — because Depp asked her to be there. She said helped the nurse with taking Depp's blood pressure, preparing his medication, and everything else needed for the process.
At one point, Heard testified, Depp "was hallucinating" and accused her of saying things she didn't say, and of hiding another man in the Bahamas house.
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"He at one point told me I was hiding someone in the room, that I had another man with me," she said. "It was terrifying and strange, the whole week."
Depp, who began dating Heard in around 2011 and split from her after 15 months of marriage in 2016, alleges Heard defamed him when she described herself in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed as a victim of domestic violence. Depp alleges that instead, Heard abused him verbally and physically during their relationship.
In his own testimony earlier in the trial, Depp didn't deny using cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol regularly, but denied his use ever became a problem.
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He said he sought treatment only when he developed an addiction to the painkiller Roxicodone, a brand name for the drug Oxycodone, which he took following a leg injury.
His doctor, David Kipper, and nurse, Debbie Lloyd, both testified in the trial that Depp retained them only to help with the painkiller addiction, but Heard said Depp's treatment plan with them involved help with other drugs as well.
Heard said Depp regularly stayed up late nights doing cocaine and drinking heavily and would disappear for hours or days on benders and return in incandescent moods. The Roxicodone addiction, she said, made things worse on some level because he'd frequently pass out in the middle of the day.
"I did not understand what was going on," Heard said. "I deeply cared about this human's wellbeing, and it was very confusing and scary."
In his failed 2020 defamation trial in the United Kingdom, brought against a British tabloid that called him a "wife beater," Depp testified that Heard "often intervened and withheld medicine" from him during the Bahamas detox.
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But Heard's lawyer entered into evidence a text message dated August 20, after the trip, where Depp called Heard an "angel" and appeared grateful for her help.
"This was the right thing to do to speed up the process," Depp wrote.
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