Johnny Depp to take the stand today in $50 million defamation trial

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Johnny Depp is expected to testify today in his $50 million defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard.

The high-profile trial, which began last week, seeks to determine whether 35-year-old Heard's 2018 op-ed for the Washington Post, in which she claimed to be a victim of domestic violence, was libelous.

Depp, 58, is suing Heard for $50 million, with the Aquaman actress having filed a $100 million counterclaim against her former husband.

Today (April 19), Depp will take the stand in Virginia's Fairfax County Courthouse, Deadline reports.

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Credit: joshua bratt / Alamy

According to a source close to the team of the Pirates of the Caribbean alum, Depp will continue on the stand tomorrow for cross-examination.

A longtime friend of Depp, sound technician Keenan Wyatt is also set to take the stand today.

The trial, which is now a week in, has seen a number of allegations about both parties come to the fore.

On day one of the trial, lawyers for Heard alleged that Depp had "punched", "kicked" and threatened to "kill" his ex.

A new claim about Depp was also presented to the jury on the opening day of the trial, with Heard's attorney Elaine Charlson Bredehoft alleging that Depp "penetrated" her client with a liquor bottle.

Bredehoft told jurors:

"As you go through those three days of Australia, some pretty horrendous things happened to her. He rips off her nightgown. He has her jammed up against the bar.

"He has hurled bottles and bottles at her. He has dragged her across the floor on the broken bottles. He has punched her. He has kicked her. He has told her he's going to f****** kill her and he f****** hates her. He's pounding at her, pounding at her. And then, he penetrates her with a liquor bottle."

Later on in the trial, text messages in which Depp apparently said he hoped Heard's "rotting corpse is decomposing in the f***ing trunk of a Honda Civic," were made known to the jury.

In a separate message, the actor purportedly wrote about Heard: "That c*** ruined such a f***ing cool life we had for a while."

Yesterday, Depp's private doctor, David Kipper, recounted in a pre-recorded deposition how he treated a wound the actor sustained after slicing his finger in Australia back in March 2015 - just weeks after the pair tied the knot.

Per The Independent, Depp claims that the injury came about after Heard threw a vodka bottle at him. Dr. Kipper, though, confirmed he did not know how the injury occurred.

However, he recalled seeing no injuries on Heard, who claimed Depp threw her into a ping pong table and pushed her into a fridge.

Featured image credit: Abaca Press / Alamy