Amber Heard has told jurors about the first time Johnny Depp allegedly hit her.
Yesterday, the actress took the witness stand to testify against her ex-husband, with whom she is currently embroiled in a brutal defamation trial, People reports.
Depp is suing Heard, 36, for $50 million over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post, in which she claimed to be a survivor of domestic abuse. Heard, meanwhile, is counter-suing the Pirates of the Caribbean star for $100 million, citing multiple occasions on which he allegedly assaulted her.
After Depp, 58, gave his testimony last month, the court has been eagerly awaiting Heard's side of the story. On Wednesday, the actor finally took the stand and described what she claims is the first of many times her ex hit her, saying "it changed my life."
The Aquaman star alleged that the incident occurred early in their relationship when she asked an innocent question about a tattoo on his arm. When Depp explained, Heard laughed - and that, she says, is what set him off.
"It was that simple. I just laughed because I thought he was joking. And he slapped me across the face," she told the court.
Heard went on to say that she assumed the slap must be a joke. "I laughed, because I didn't know what else to do. I thought, 'This must be a joke.' ... I didn't know what was going on. I just stared at him, kind of laughing still, thinking he was gonna start laughing too to tell me it was a joke. But he didn't."
According to Heard, Depp then slapped her again, at which point to her, "it was clear it wasn't a joke anymore."
At this point in her testimony, Heard became visibly emotional on the stand as she described how Depp hit her again, this time knocking her to the ground.
She then explained that though the slap didn't actually hurt, it was still shocking. "It didn't hurt; it didn't physically hurt me," she said, adding: "I didn't want this to be the reality. I didn't want to have the man I was in love with— I know you don't come back from that."
"I'm not dumb. You can't hit a woman, you can't hit a man. You can't hit anyone," Heard told the court while crying on the witness stand. She concluded her account of the incident by saying that Depp then fell to his knees and gave her a tearful apology.
Heard's version of events stands in stark contrast to her ex-husband's. During his testimony, the star was asked about the alleged 'tattoo incident' - but he claimed that the moment, as Heard described it, "didn't happen".
"I've never struck Ms. Heard. I have never struck a woman in my life. I'm certainly not going to strike a woman if she decides to make fun of a tattoo that I have on my body," he said, adding: "That allegation never made any sense to me whatsoever."
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