Johnny Depp tried to submit nudes as evidence, Amber Heard lawyers say in newly unsealed court documents

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Johnny Depp tried to submit nudes as evidence, Amber Heard lawyers say in newly unsealed court documents
A composite image of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp.Reuters/Reuters
  • Heard's lawyers said Depp tried to submit "irrelevant personal matters" as trial evidence.
  • Among the evidence were "nude pictures" of Heard, her lawyers said in newly unsealed court documents.
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Amber Heard's lawyers accused Johnny Depp of trying to submit her nude photos as evidence at their defamation trial, according to newly unsealed court documents.

More than 6,000 pages of court documents published over the weekend — the authenticity of which Insider confirmed with the Fairfaix County Circuirt Court — showed claims submitted by Heard and Depp's lawyers in preparation for their trial, which ran from April 11 to June 1.

In the documents, Heard's legal team accused Depp of trying to submit "irrelevant personal matters" as evidence, including Heard's "nude pictures" and her "brief stint as an exotic dancer years before she met Mr. Depp."

The nudes were not brought up at trial. Representatives for Depp and Heard did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

In 2014, Heard became one of the victims of a large-scale leak of celebrity nudes. More than 50 of her personal photos were leaked in the scandal, among them a picture of her nude with a message to Depp. It is unclear whether her hacked images are the same as the ones Heard's legal team referrs to in the court documents.

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Revenge porn, the act of nonconsensually sharing explicit photos online, has increasingly been a concern for celebrities, and it disproportionately affects women.

There is currently no federal revenge-porn law, but more than 40 states have banned it, according to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative.

Earlier this year Depp took Heard to court over a December 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she implied, without naming him, that she was a survivor of sexual and domestic violence. Heard then countersued.

During the trial, Heard's former nurse, Erin Falati, told jurors Heard told her she didn't feel supported by Depp during the photo leak, which Falati said caused her a lot of anxiety.

"I remember a general sense of Ms. Heard being very upset her phone was hacked because there was very sensitive information in it, and I feel that she was having a difficult time calming after that," Falati told the court via prerecorded testimony.

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On June 1, jurors found both Depp and Heard liable for defaming each other, but awarded Depp more in damages.

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