Amber Heard's lawyer has claimed that "the monster would come out" of Johnny Depp when he drank and took drugs.
The celebrity exes are currently embroiled in a $50 million defamation trial, in which Depp, 58, is suing Heard, 35, for claiming to be a domestic abuse survivor in a 2018 op-ed for the Washington Post.
On Tuesday, the blockbuster trial kicked off with explosive opening statements from both stars' attorneys, in which they gave jury members brutal details of the couple's apparently violent relationship at Fairfax County Court in Virginia.
One of the most damning allegations came from Heard's attorney Ben Rottenborn, who claimed that Depp - who has struggled with addiction issues for years - would transform while under the influence, according to a report by Insider.
"Amber Heard never wanted to unearth for the public who the real Johnny Depp is," Rottenborn told the court, adding: "But that's going to come out over the course of this trial. You are going to see who the real Johnny Depp is."
Another of Heard's lawyers Elaine Bredehoft, expanded on her colleague's statement later on. "The monster would come out when he was drinking and when he would take the drugs," she said, before going on to describe him as an "obsessed ex-husband hellbent on revenge" who engaged in "crushing drug and alcohol abuse."
Meanwhile, Depp's lawyer Benjamin Chew took a similarly aggressive tack. As well as describing Heard as a liar, he claimed that she deliberately ruined her ex-husband's career, as her accusations led to him being dropped from big-budget projects including the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and Harry Potter prequels franchise Fantastic Beasts.
"When, like Mr. Depp, your career depends on your image and your reputation, or whether movie producers want their movie associated with you, that can be particularly harmful," he told the court, per Insider.
"By choosing to lie about her husband for her own personal benefit, Amber Heard chose to ruin his reputation," Chew added.
Depp's team also called his sister to the witness stand, where she made an impassioned defense of her brother's character and accused Heard of verbally and emotionally abusing him throughout their relationship.