Amber Heard became visibly emotional as she told her and Johnny Depp’s defamation trial about the first time he allegedly hit her.
Taking the witness stand on Wednesday, the actress fought back tears as she said the actor had slapped her three times after she had laughed about one of his tattoos.
“(It was) seemingly so stupid and insignificant, I will never forget it, it changed my life,” she said of the alleged incident in 2013.
Heard told the trial the pair were sitting on a couch when she asked him about a tattoo Depp had on his arm.
She said it “just looked like black marks” but Depp said it read “Wino Forever” after his ex-girlfriend Winona Ryder.
“I thought he was joking ... it didn’t look like it said that at all. I then laughed, it was that simple...and he slapped me across the face.
“I laughed because I didn’t know what else to do.
“I thought this must be a joke... I didn't know what was going on.
“I just stared at him, kind of laughing, still thinking he was going to start laughing too....but he didn’t. He just said ‘ you think it’s funny, b*tch? You think you’re a funny b*tch?
“And he slapped me again.”
Through tears Heard told the court that in May 2013 the couple were on vacation at a trailer park near Joshua Tree where he performed a ‘cavity search,’ looking for cocaine after he accused her of flirting with another woman.
She sobbed as she described the search: “He starts patting me down, he ripped my dress. He’s grabbing my breasts, he’s touching my thighs, he rips my underwear off and then he proceeds to do a cavity search. He said he was looking for his cocaine, his coke.
“[Depp] just shoved his fingers inside me. I just stood there staring at the stupid light, I didn’t know what to do. He twisted his fingers around. I didn’t stay stop or anything.”
Earlier Heard said the libel suit brought by her ex-husband was “the most painful and difficult thing I’ve ever gone through”.
Asked how she felt about the trial, she told the court in Virginia: “I struggle to have the words... to find the words to describe how painful this is.
“This is horrible for me. To sit here for weeks and relive everything... hear people that I knew - some well, some not - my ex-husband, speak about our lives in the way that they have.”
She said it was “the most painful and difficult thing I’ve ever gone through”.
Heard said she knew she should leave Johnny Depp the first time he hit her, but couldn’t bring herself to do it.
“I knew I couldn’t just forgive him, right, because that means it will happen again. Like, I’ve seen the health class videos,” Heard told jurors through tears. “I was heartbroken.”
Ultimately, though, she couldn’t bring herself to break up. She walked away after being slapped, but a few days later Depp came back with an apology, a few cases of her favourite wine, and a promise he’d never do it again, Heard testified.
“I wanted to believe him, so I chose to,” she said.
Aquaman star Heard’s lawyers asked the judge to dismiss the case on Tuesday claiming that Depp had failed to make his case as a matter of law and that no reasonable jury could come to a decision in his favour.
The judge, Penney Azcarate, said the standard for dismissing the case, however, was exceedingly high and should proceed.
Depp's attorneys rested their case after arguing that Heard, 35, libelled the Pirates of the Caribbean star when she claimed she was a victim of domestic abuse.
Heard's side began their response by calling to the stand a psychologist who said the actress suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder due to physical and sexual abuse by Depp.
Depp is suing Heard, for $50 million at Fairfax County Circuit Court after the Aquaman star wrote a December 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post describing herself as "a public figure representing domestic abuse."
His ex-wife is countersuing him for $100 million over Depp’s claims that she is lying.
She also described to jurors how they met filming a movie and fell in love.
Despite their 22-year age difference, Heard said there was an instant connection when Depp met with her as he considered her for a role in his film “The Rum Diary.”
“I was a no-name actor. I was 22. He was twice my age. He’s this world famous actor and here we are getting along about obscure books, old blues” music, said Heard, now 36.
While they had chemistry during filming of the movie, she said they didn’t begin dating until doing a press tour for the film’s release in 2011. At the outset, they kept their relationship a secret.
“We weren’t doing normal life stuff. ... We were in this bubble of secrecy, and it felt like a warm glow,” she said.
The trial continues.
