Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s lavish wedding day included “dinner, dancing, and drugs” on the printed itinerary for guests, a US court has been told.
The Edward Scissorhands star, 58, married Heard in a private ceremony at his mother’s house on February 3, 2015, before they flew out to his Caribbean island for a second “dream wedding”.
Depp, who says he started taking drugs aged 11, told jurors he saw his ex-wife and her “gang” taking ecstasy in the form of MDMA, but says he shunned the drug as it “wouldn’t have an effect on me”.
“There was a schedule that was written out and printed out and sent out so that everyone would know exactly the time that everything would happen,” Depp said of their wedding day.
“After the wedding, it was like dinner, dancing, and drugs on the schedule.”
Asked to identify the drug-takers, Depp named “Amber”, her sister Savannah, some friends, and “a couple of friends of mine”, adding: “All of her gang were all partaking of the MDMA.”
Depp said he smoked marijuana and cannot recall drinking that day as he was due to fly out to film Pirates of the Caribbean 5: “To be honest with you, I don’t know how much MDMA they had but for me, that was – for me to have taken MDMA would have been a waste of the drug, if you understand what I mean. It would have been essentially taking someone else’s high, because it wouldn’t have an effect on me.”
He added: “My drug of choice is – or was – and is marijuana. That was fine for me. So dipping into a little tiny baggie of – licking your finger and dipping into a tiny, communal bag of MDMA, it was pointless for me.”
Depp added his daughter, Lily-Rose, did not attend the 2015 wedding: “She and Ms Heard were not on particularly great terms for several reasons”, he said.
Depp is suing the Aquaman star, 35, for $50 million over a 2018 Washington op-ed piece in which she described being a victim of domestic violence.
The actor - not named in the article - claims the allegations were aimed at him, while Heard is counter-suing for $100 million over his suggestions that she is lying about the abuse.
In his evidence, Depp has said he shied away from arguments and spark points for potential violence while he has accused Heard of verbal and physical attacks.
Jurors were played a recording of Depp and Heard talking about a fight when she says: “I didn’t punch you. I’m sorry I didn’t hit you across the face in a proper slap. I was hitting you, it was not punching you.”
Depp replies: “Don’t tell what it feels like to be punched” and Heard fires back: “You’ve been in a lot of fights, you’ve been around a long time. You didn’t get punched. You got hit.
“I’m sorry I hit you like this, I didn’t punch you. I did not f***ing deck you. I f***ing was hitting you. I don’t know what the motion of my actual hand was. You’re fine. I did not hurt you, I did not punch you, I was hitting you.”
After calling Depp a “f***ing baby”, Heard says: “I did start a physical fight.”
In a second recording, Depp talks about Heard “kicking the bathroom door and hitting me in the skull” and she replies: “I was upset I was on an Ambien, there was a lot going on.”
Facing a complaint that he would “run away to the bathroom” to avoid working out their problems, Depp replies: “A boxer can’t go 12 rounds without a break.”
Depp told the court the clips reflected “the tone and the aggression and the attitude and the need for a fight from Miss Heard”.
In his evidence, the actor also discussed an incident in Australia while he was filming Pirates of the Caribbean 5 when he was left with a severed finger. He says Heard caused the injury when she threw a vodka bottle at him because she was angry at his drinking while she claims the wound was self-inflicted.
“My hand is on the edge of the bar like that, leaning over,” he said. “She threw the large bottle and it made contact and shattered everywhere and I honestly didn’t feel the pain at first at all, I felt no pain.”
Depp said he “felt heat” and saw blood dripping from the exposed flesh and bone: “I went into some sort of, I don’t know what a nervous breakdown feels like but that’s probably the closest I’ve been.”
He added: “I started to write with my own blood on the walls, little reminders from our past that essentially represented lies she had told me, lies I had caught her in.”
The trial continues.
