Amber Heard Grilled by Johnny Depp’s Lawyer In Heated Cross-Examination Over Injuries, Donations

Vasquez started by first questioning Heard about Depp always wearing “big, chunky rings,” suggesting that she would need to seek medical treatment for some of the alleged attacks had he been wearing them at the time. She then showed a number of photos where marks were not visible on her body, around or on dates where Heard had claimed she was abused.

One specific set of photos was shown from the night after the 2015 Met Gala. If you recall, Heard previously testified Depp accused her of flirting with someone at the event, shoved her in their hotel room after and “whacked” her in the face. “I suspected I had a broken nose,” she said.

She and Depp attended an event for Don Rickles the following evening and while there were no visible injuries, Heard said, “I’m not sure if it was broken, for the record, but you should see what it looked like under the makeup.”

“He did whack me in the face and I did think I broke my nose,” she said, adding, “This is a picture of me the night after he did whack me in the face.” She also said that’s why she was wearing makeup, to hide any injuries.

“And makeup covers up swelling?” asked Vasquez, before Heard replied that ice reduced the swelling.

Vasquez also asked about the alleged sexual assault with a liquor bottle Heard previously mentioned — wondering why there were no photos of her injuries or medical records of the assault. “I did not seek medical treatment after Australia, no. I did not want to tell anyone,” said Amber.

She also questioned Heard’s testimony that she had a split lip after another fight, before appearing on James Corden’s talk show the following day. Showing photos of Heard making open-mouth gestures during taping, she asked, “You had a split lip when you were moving your mouth in that way?” Amber’s reaction: “I sure did, absolutely.”

There was a lot of time dedicated to the $7 million settlement Heard received in the divorce and Amber’s pledge to donate it all to two charities: the ACLU and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Heard claimed that it was “always the agreement” for Depp to pay her the settlement, before Amber made the donations, so Johnny would not “reap a tax benefit” from them. When he decided to make a pair of direct payments himself, Heard insisted the donation amount be increased so he wouldn’t get a big tax break. Amber also clarified that 1.) she has pledged and still intends to pay the donations in full and 2.) any donation from Elon Musk was made in addition to her pledge, not as part of it.

Heard and Vasquez got into a pretty fast-paced and somewhat heated back-and-forth about the money at the end of the day, after Vasquez said Heard “did want something” out of the divorce. The back-and-forth is below.

Heard: “I didn’t want anything and I didn’t get anything.”

Vasquez: “You wanted Mr. Depp’s money.”

Heard: “Didn’t get it, wasn’t interested in It. I loved Johnny, that’s why I was with him.”

Vasquez: “You wanted praise for donating the money, right?”

Heard: “That’s incorrect.”

Vasquez: “You wanted good press.”

Heard: “In general, one does want good press, yes.”

Vasquez: “You wanted to seem altruistic, publicly.”

Heard: “It wasn’t my interest. My interest is in my name, clearing my name and at the time I was called a liar and my motives were being questioned. I did see it as important to clear that up. I wanted to make a statement to make sure that there was not any doubt that I couldn’t be labeled these things just because Johnny was a bigger star and had more publicity reach.”

Vasquez: “You wanted to remind everyone of your claims of domestic violence against Mr. Depp.”

Heard: “No, I wanted to move on with my life.”

Vasquez: “You wanted to make those claims seem believable.”

Heard: “They are believable.”

Vasquez: “You wanted to be seen as a noble victim of domestic violence.”

Heard: “I have never, never wanted to be seen as a victim. Nor have I ever called myself one.”

Vasquez: “You testified under oath, ‘The entirety of my divorce settlement was donated to charity.’ That statement wasn’t true.”

Heard: “It is true. I pledged the entirety to charity. When you say you buy a house, you don’t pay for the entire house at one time. You pay overtime.”

Vasquez: “That statement isn’t true today.”

Heard: “It is true. I pledged the entirety to charity.”

Vasquez: “You didn’t donate it.”

Heard: “I haven’t been able to fulfill those obligations. I made the pledge. I pledged the entirety. I haven’t been able to fulfill those pledges because I’ve been sued.”

Vasquez: “You had all of the $7 million for 13 months before Mr. Depp sued you and you chose not to pay it to the charities you pledged it to.”

Heard: “I disagree with your characterization of that.”

Vasquez: “Most of the money that was donated to the ACLU & CHLA in your name came from someone else, is that right? At least $500K that was donated to the ACLU in your name wasn’t paid by you.”

Heard: “I believe Elon made a donation in my honor one of the years.”

Vasquez: “And it didn’t come out of your $7 million divorce settlement, right?”

Heard: “No, nor did it count toward my pledge.”

Vasquez: “You got him to pay part of what you promised to the two charities, didn’t you … because you wanted to keep at least some of the $7 million for yourself, right?”

Heard: “You’re very wrong about that.”

With that, court took recess for the day. Cross-examination will continue Tuesday.

Depp is seeking $50 million in damages after Heard claimed she was a survivor of domestic abuse in an op-ed in the Washington Post in 2018. While she didn’t name Depp in the piece, his lawyers argue it was implied to be about him and negatively affected his career. She countersued Depp for $100 million.