Johnny Depp chuckled as Amber Heard told the court that he was allowed to “take off his own boots”.
The defamation trial between Mr Depp and Ms Heard began on 11 April in Fairfax, Virginia following Mr Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2019. Mr Depp is arguing that she defamed him in a December 2018 op-ed published in The Washington Post titled “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change”.
Mr Depp testified earlier in the trial that they had a ritual which involved Ms Heard bringing him a glass of wine and taking off his boots when he came home. The actor said Ms Heard would get angry if he took off his own shoes.
“When I came home from work I’d come in the house and she’d sit me down and give me a glass of wine and take my boots off,” Mr Depp said.
When he did it himself, Mr Depp said Ms Heard told him, “no, no, no, that’s my job. You don’t do that, I do that”.
On Wednesday, Ms Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft said, “we’ve heard a little testimony about boots. What if anything, did you do to help Johnny with his boots?”
“Well, I mean, I suppose that I took off his boots and it made an impression on him. I was happy to you know, anything I can do to show love,” Ms Heard said.
She added that it was “certainly how I felt about him, but if he wanted to take off his own boots he certainly could”.
In her 2018 op-ed, Ms Heard wrote that “like many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the time I was of college age. But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim”.
“Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she added at the time.
While Mr Depp isn’t named in the piece, his legal team argues that it contains a “clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser”, which they say is “categorically and demonstrably false”. Mr Depp is seeking damages of “not less than $50m”.
Ms Heard has filed a $100m counterclaim against Mr Depp for nuisance and immunity from his allegations.
