Johnny Depp has cited his love of playing guitar as a reason he would never have "cut" his "own finger off".
The 58-year-old actor spoke before jurors at his $50 million defamation trial in Fairfax County, Virginia, saying that he would never do such a thing to himself because of his love for the musical instrument.
Depp's finger injury in March 2015 is just one of many violent incidents from the celebrity exes' marriage that has come to light in the courtroom, where Depp is suing Heard over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she claimed to have suffered domestic abuse.
Both actors maintain that they were the real victim in their ill-fated union and claim to have been physically abused by the other.
One of the key points of contention for both parties is the violent row they had in March 2015 while on a trip to Australia, when Heard visited her then-husband on the set of the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
According to court documents filed by Heard's legal team, Depp cut his own finger off when he slammed "a hard plastic phone against the wall", Insider reports.
However, during his testimony last week Depp refuted this version of events, claiming that it was his ex-wife who severed the top of his middle right finger by throwing a glass vodka bottle at him.
During cross-examination by Heard's attorneys, the actor defended his claim by making the argument that, as a guitar player, cutting off his finger was unthinkable.
He referred to playing the instrument as "the only thing that was really good in my life, aside from my children," adding: "There's no way I would cut my own finger off to ruin this beautiful opportunity to start playing guitar."
"When the tip of this finger went, the only thing I can think of in my mind is 'Thank God it isn't the left hand, which is my fret hand,'" the actor recalled.
Depp went on to talk about how playing guitar had helped him through his abusive childhood when he and his siblings were terrorized by their allegedly violent mother.
"It was the only peace that I found in my life at the age of 12, where I knew what I could escape into music and learn music," he said.