A psychologist hired by Johnny Depp’s legal team to evaluate Amber Heard got into a bizarre exchange about muffins with the latter actor’s lawyer in court on Tuesday.
Dr Shannon Curry indicated that she wanted to “stop talking about muffins” after Ms Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft questioned her about her husband buying baked goods for Ms Heard.
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”.
Dr Curry took the stand on Tuesday saying that she met with Ms Heard on “two separate dates” as she conducted her evaluation – 10 and 17 December 2021. She said they spent 12 hours together and that “the result of Ms Heard’s evaluation supported two diagnoses – borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder”.
Attorney Elaine Bredehoft suggested that Dr Curry was “so excited” to take part in the case that she told her husband that she was going to evaluate Ms Heard despite the case’s “highly confidential” nature.
“That is not accurate,” Dr Curry said.
Ms Bredehoft said again that Dr Curry had told her husband that she would be meeting Ms Heard, a claim Dr Curry rejected.
“You said you brought muffins from your husband, and you gave those to Ms Heard, correct?” Ms Bredehoft asked.
“May I clarify what occurred so that we can stop talking about the muffins?” Dr Curry said. “What happened was that I was getting ready that morning, I frequently bring muffins to the office.
“My husband did happen to know that there was going to be a celebrity client coming in because on the morning that that occurs, which often occurs, we have to actually clear the office and move the staff to the other office.”
“So yes, on the one hand, he was aware of that. I was getting ready, I asked him to go to the bakery near our house and pick up the muffins for me because I was running late – he often has to do that because I often do run late,” Dr Curry said.
“He brought the muffins back to the house, I brought them into the office, Ms Heard and I enjoyed the muffins together.”
“I think I made a comment to her along the lines of ‘my husband got these for us today’, meaning he purchased the muffins we are now enjoying them because of him,” she added.
“Why did your husband get the muffins for Amber Heard?” Ms Bredehoft later asked Dr Curry.
“He did not get the muffins for Amber Heard,” she said with a chuckle.
“He knew you had a high-profile client and you were preparing for a very long time and you asked him to pick up the muffins, correct?” Ms Bredehoft asked.
“I asked him to pick up the muffins for me, yes,” Dr Curry said.
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.
