Johnny Depp accuses Amber Heard of instigating fights and violence in defamation trial

Johnny Depp accused his ex-wife, Amber Heard, of instigating the fight to satisfy a need for conflict when he continued his testimony on Wednesday morning in the trial of the defamation lawsuit he filed against her.

Depp is suing Heard over an essay she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018, in which she says she has become a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Although the article never mentioned Depp by name, his lawyers said it indirectly referred to the allegations she brought against him during their 2016 divorce.

In his morning testimony, Depp alleged that Heard was in fact the instigator of their arguments and sometimes escalated fights into physical violence.

“It wasn’t meant to help the relationship, it was meant to feed her conflicting need,” Depp said. “She needs conflict, she needs violence. It came out of nowhere.”

According to Depp’s account of their relationship, Heard would fight and escalate them with condescending language. He also said that sometimes she would “strike” whether it was a slap, a shove or throwing an object at him.

“It’s hard to explain but the controversy is going to start here but it’s going to spin and become a kind of circle of its own,” Depp said. “You’ll go back to the beginning… now it’s even higher and it’s still circular, with no way in or out.”

In pre-trial court filings, Heard said she hit Depp in self-defense or to protect her sister, according to The New York Times.

In a callback of his testimony from Tuesday, Depp said he would often be the one to steer clear of their arguments because it’s a strategy he learned in his youth. He told the court the day before that his mother was physically and verbally abusive, and the father often sat calmly until finally leaving his wife when Depp was a teenager.

The trial in Fairfax County, Virginia, is expected to last several weeks. A Fairfax judge ruled in 2019 that Depp had the right to take the case there because The Washington Post’s online editions are published through servers in the county.

Depp’s testimony on Wednesday was paused for a morning break, after which Heard’s attorneys are expected to begin cross-examination.

Heard was granted a protective order in May 2016 after she alleges that Depp hit her in the face with her phone. She gave evidence in court – a photo with a bruise on her face – and claimed he pulled her hair, yelled and beat her repeatedly.

“During our entire relationship, Johnny Depp abused me verbally and physically,” Heard said in a sworn statement at the time.

She also said she lived in fear of Depp, saying he had a “short fuse” and terrorizing her.

Depp has denied the allegations, saying he never became “out of control.”

Diana Dasrath contribute.

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here