Johnny Depp once called Amber Heard a “c**t” and referred to her “rotting corpse” in a text to a friend, a US court heard on Wednesday.
The message was read on Wednesday (13 April) as part of the defamation case opposing Depp and Heard in Fairfax, Virginia.
The day’s witnesses included Depp’s longtime friend Isaac Baruch, who was asked by Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft: “Do you recall Mr Depp ever telling you that he hoped that Amber Heard’s rotting corpse is decomposing in the f*****g trunk of a Honda Civic?”
Baruch pointed to a monitor on which the message was displayed and said: “Yeah. Well, I say yeah – I’m seeing it here, so obviously, yeah, it was said. It was written.”
Bredehoft then asked him whether Depp had referred to Heard as a “c**t” over text.
“Well, it’s written there, so yeah, I could see that,” Baruch said, also reading from a monitor in front of him. Disputing Bredehoft’s specific characterization of Depp’s words, he added: “That’s not what he says – he says: ‘That c**t ruined such a f*****g cool life we had for a while.’”
Depp has sued Heard for alleged defamation over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018. Heard has filed a countersuit accusing Depp of allegedly orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her and describing his own lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment.”
The Virginia trial is expected to last for six weeks.
