LONDON (AP) — Johnny Depp is back in the witness box for a third day Thursday at the trial of his libel suit against a tabloid newspaper that called him a “wife-beater.”
Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the paper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that said he’d physically abused ex-wife Amber Heard.
He strongly denies ever hitting Heard, but has faced tough questioning at the High Court in London from The Sun’s lawyer, Sasha Wass. Depp acknowledged Wednesday that he may have done things he can’t remember while he was under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
Wass asked Depp about a 2014 private plane flight from Boston to Los Angeles. Heard alleges the actor went into a rage during the flight, slapped her and kicked her in the back because he believed she was having an affair with actor James Franco.
Depp denied assaulting Heard or being out of control on the plane.
Wass then presented Depp with a text he sent after the flight to a friend, actor Paul Bettany, saying he’d taken “powders ... Half a bottle of Whiskey. A thousand red bull and vodkas, pills, 2 bottles of champers (champagne) on the plane.” The message said the result had been “blackout, screaming obscenities and insulting any (person) who got near.”
“I may have done things that I have no memory of,” Depp said. But he insisted “I am certainly not a violent person, especially with women.”
The plane incident is one of 14 allegations by Heard of Depp’s violence between 2013 and 2016 that the Sun is relying on in its defence.
The case is shining a light on the tempestuous relationship between Depp and Heard, who met on the set of the 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary” and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard, a model and actress, filed for divorce the following year and obtained a restraining order against Depp on the grounds of domestic abuse. The divorce was finalized in 2017.
While neither Heard, 34, nor 57-year-old Depp is on trial, the case is a showdown between the former spouses, who accuse each other of being controlling, violent and deceitful during their tempestuous marriage.
Wass read the court an email to Depp that Heard had composed in 2013 but never sent, saying he was “like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Half of you I love madly, and the other half scares me.”
Depp accused Heard of making up “hoax” abuse claims. He has acknowledged heavy drinking and drug use, but said Heard’s claim that drugs and alcohol made him a monster was “delusional.”
“Hoax is probably the best word one could use because the allegations, all of the allegations, are patently untrue,” Depp said Tuesday.
He also denied claims he hit Heard when she laughed at one of his tattoos, dangled her Yorkshire terrier, Pistol, out a car window and threatened to put the dog in a microwave.
Depp acknowledged having a “rather skewed” sense of humour and said the microwave comment was a running joke because the dog was so tiny.
Heard is attending the three-week trial and is expected to give evidence later.
Depp is also suing Heard in the United States for $50 million for allegedly defaming him in a Washington Post article about domestic abuse. That case is due to be heard next year.
