Amber Heard sobbed in court saying she filed for divorce from Johnny Depp because she feared she ‘wouldn’t survive’ if she stayed in the relationship.
“I knew if I didn’t, I probably literally wouldn’t survive,” she said, holding back tears.
Ms Heard told jurors in the multimillion-dollar libel trial on Monday that her decision to divorce her then-husband was “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do”.
But she said she realized she had to because the “monster” and domestic violence had become “normal”.
“The monster had been that thing that was now the normal and not the exception. Violence was now the norm and not the exception,” she sobbed.
“I think he would have gone too far and I wouldn’t be there.”
Ms Heard returned to the stand for a third day of testimony as the trial resumed in Fairfax, Va., after a week-long hiatus on Monday.
Mr Depp is suing his ex-wife for defamation over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post where she describes herself as a “public figure representing domestic violence”.
the Pirates of the Caribbean The actor is not named in the article, which is titled “I spoke out against sexual violence – and faced the wrath of our culture. This must change”.
However, Mr Depp claims this falsely implies he is a domestic abuser – which he strongly denies – and has left him struggling to land roles in Hollywood. He’s suing for $50 million.
Ms Heard is fighting back for $100million, accusing Mr Depp of orchestrating a ‘smear campaign’ against her and describing her lawsuit as a continuation of ‘abuse and harassment’.
On Monday, Ms Heard testified about her decision to finally file for divorce from Mr Depp.
“At the time, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” she said.
“I had worked so hard to try to make this relationship work.
“I went to therapy. I went to Al-Anon. I got help. I read books. I did everything I could think of and it didn’t work.
The Aquaman actress said she was ‘confused’ about filing for divorce because she loved Mr Depp ‘so much’, but said she knew she had to after a violent incident where he allegedly threw a phone in her face.
“I was conflicted. I knew after he threw the phone in my face that after all this month of not seeing each other, not getting better, not getting clean and sober, everything was falling apart,” she declared.
“It was so hard. I knew I had to leave him. I knew I wouldn’t survive it if I didn’t. So I made the decision to file for divorce.
“It was hard because I loved Johnny so much. I loved him so much.
Ms Heard’s eyes filled with tears as she told the court she feared for her life.
“I was so scared it would end really badly for me,” she said.
“And I really didn’t want to leave him.”
Ms Heard sobbed as she said it was ‘so difficult’ to file for divorce, but said she ‘knew I had to’.
She told jurors she applied for a domestic violence restraining order because she wanted to ‘feel safe’.
Ms Heard spoke of the toll the relationship had on her, saying it was “falling apart”.
She said security would always let Mr. Depp into her house no matter how much she begged them not to.
“I wanted to change my locks. I wanted a good night’s sleep, she sobbed.
“I was losing hair, I was losing weight…I couldn’t sleep…I had panic attacks all the time. I was falling apart,” she said.
“I was scared and I was very conflicted because the person I was scared of was also the person I was in love with.”
Ms Heard previously spoke in court about an alleged incident on May 21, 2016, in which she said he threw a mobile phone at her face.
Police were called to the incident, but Ms Heard said she did not cooperate with them because she ‘didn’t want him in trouble’.
“I didn’t want the world to know,” she said.
The jury showed a photo of her bruised face which she said was caused by the phone.
Mr Depp denies abusing his ex-wife and testified he had already told Ms Heard he was considering divorce when she filed for divorce.
He said he had gone to the flat to collect some things and Ms Heard was laughing on the phone with a friend about an incident where faeces had been left on his bed.
He said he grabbed the phone and said to his friend, “You can have it now. She is all yours.
Mr Depp claimed he then “put the phone down on the sofa”.
The Independent Gt