Johnny Depp’s assistant admitted that the Hollywood star allegedly “kicked” Amber Heard in the head in text messages that were excluded from the former couple’s defamation trial.
More than 6,000 previously sealed pages in the case, which made headlines around the world as it was televised for weeks, were made public over the weekend, according to a report inThe Daily Beast.
Messages sent from Mr Depp’s then-assistant Stephen Deuters in 2014 detailed how the actor had allegedly kicked Ms Heard onboard a private jet.
“If someone was truly honest with him about how bad it really was, he would be appalled,” Mr Deuters reportedly texted Ms Heard about Mr Depp.
“I’m sad he does not have a better way to really know the severity of his actions yesterday. Unfortunately for me, I remember them in full, in full detail, everything that happened. He was appalled, when I told him he kicked you, he cried.”
According to the unsealed documents, Mr Depp remorsefully texted Ms Heard about the incident.
“Once again, I find myself in a place of shame and regret. Of course I am sorry…I will never do it again…My illness somehow crept up and grabbed me…I feel so bad for letting you down,” he wrote according to the court documents.
In other messages that Ms Heard kept, Mr Depp again apologized and called himself a “f***ing savage” and a “lunatic.”
The law firm representing Mr Depp, Brown Rudnick, stated that they had not been able to find any record of the text messages in the actor’s iCloud and said they had looked into whether they had been “deleted.” They ultimately stated in the court papers that the text messages were “missing.”
The text messages related to the alleged “kicking” incident were presented at the former couple’s trial in the UK, but were deemed inadmissible by the judge in the Virginia case. The judge ultimately refused to allow the jury to hear any evidence from the couple’s divorce proceedings in the defamation trial.
The US defamation trial began on 11 April in Fairfax, Virginia, and stemmed from a complaint filed in March 2019 by Mr Depp against his ex-wife.
Mr Depp alleged that Ms Heard had defamed him in an op-ed published in The Washington Post, in which she described herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”. Ms Heard filed a counter-suit in November 2020, asking to be granted immunity against Mr Depp’s claims.
On 1 June, a jury overwhelmingly found in Mr Depp’s favor that Ms Heard had defamed Mr Depp in three statements. Jurors also found that an attorney for Mr Depp defamed Ms Heard in one of three statements highlighted in her counter-suit. Mr Depp was awarded $10.35m in damages, while Ms Heard was awarded $2m.
They have both appealed the jury’s awards against them.
The Independent has reached out to lawyers for Ms Heard.
