A former personal assistant to Amber Heard said that she never saw the actress suffer any kind of physical abuse at the hands of her then-husband Johnny Depp, instead she said that she Heard spat in her face when she asked for a higher salary.
Heard used to fight with a blind rage, she would text incoherently at 4 a.m. and she used to be drunk or high on illegal drugs, Kate James testified in a video statement that was played in court during the trial of Depp's libel suit against Heard.
Depp, for his part, was very calm, almost shy "like a total southern gentleman," James said.
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor accused Heard of indirectly defaming him in a 2018 op-ed he wrote for The Washington Post. Heard refers to herself in the article as "a public figure representing domestic abuse." The article doesn't name Depp, but her lawyers argue that it clearly references a restraining order that Heard filed for in May 2016, just after Depp told her that she wanted to divorce her.
Depp denies abusing Heard, but lawyers say the evidence will show that she did. The fact that the actor denies Depp's accusations, they say, has no credibility because he used to drink and use drugs to the point where he could not remember what he did.
James' video testimony presented another point of view: Depp was the peaceful one, she said, while Heard was frequently intoxicated and used to inflict verbal abuse, including bullying her own mother and sister.
"Her poor sister of hers was treated like a dog you kick, basically," James said.
James, who worked for Heard from 2012 to 2015, said she was paid "very poorly." She noted that she was hired at a starting wage of $25 an hour and that her duties ranged from picking up Heard's clothes at the dry cleaners to speaking with the Hollywood actress's agents.
James also said that it was her job to buy two copies of any magazine that featured Herd and store them in the garage to prevent Depp from seeing them. Heard unleashed her "blind rage" when James didn't put the magazines in the garage, the witness said.
Of the time Heard and Depp spent together, James said Heard was "a very dramatic person" who had a lot of insecurities in the relationship. Heard used to call James to cry and complain about Depp, she said.
"I remember one time she called me when she was alone in New York, and she was crying and walking the streets," James said. She added that she told Heard to enter a building: "I was afraid the paparazzi would take a picture of her."
Part of the statements also focused on a text message that Depp had sent to James after he and Heard separated. Depp's text read: "Come get some purple and we'll fix her fat ass nice and nice."
An attorney asked her if by “purple” they meant wine and if her “his” referred to Heard. James said he didn't want to guess.
"So he writes," James said of Depp. "It's very weird and you don't question it... he writes in a very abstract way."
Lawyers also submitted a video statement from Laurel Anderson, the couples therapist who worked with Heard and Depp in 2015, when she was 29 and he was 52.
Anderson said they both suffered from childhood abuse. And as a couple they were involved in "mutual abuse," she testified.
Heard's father beat her, Anderson said, adding, "She was proud to start a fight if she felt disrespected."
Heard would also rather be in a fight with Depp than see him walk away from her and she "could punch him to keep him there," Anderson said.
The therapist remembered when Heard told her that Depp was using a lot of drugs.
"And she slapped him because she was talking nonsense and talking about being with another woman," Anderson said. She pointed out that Depp's mother was in the hospital at the time.
Anderson said Depp told him that Heard "punched as hard as she could." She also noted that in at least one session in which she saw Heard alone, the actress told her that Depp hit her. She said Heard showed her bruises to her, in photographs and in person.
Anderson said Heard also told her that Depp at one point allegedly told her, “No one likes you. You're having fame for me. I no longer feel in love with you. You are a prostitute."
Anderson noted that Heard's harsh way of speaking and her habit of interrupting Depp weighed him down.
