Johnny Depp has told a court in Virginia that a vodka bottle thrown by his former wife Amber Heard severed the tip of his finger during a row in Australia, forcing him to lie to doctors about the cause. The actor, giving evidence on the second day of his $50m defamation lawsuit against Heard, described how blood 'was pouring out' and that he went into what felt like a nervous breakdown.
Depp said that Heard had become enraged when he started drinking while filming a Pirates of the Caribbean film, and that she threw the bottle at him. He later hid in a bathroom and was taken to hospital, where he claimed the injury was caused by large accordion doors. 'I lied because I didn't want to disclose that it had been Ms Heard that had thrown a vodka bottle at me and took my finger off,' he testified.
The actor also recounted the discovery of human faeces on his side of the bed after his mother's death, which he insisted could not have come from the couple's dogs. He said that Heard later laughed about the incident on the phone with a friend. Depp described his marriage as marked by 'an endless parade of insults' and said Heard's 'need for conflict and violence erupts out of nowhere.'
Depp claimed that Heard's allegations of domestic abuse have destroyed his career, stating: 'When the allegations were made, when they were circling the globe, telling people I was a drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat women, suddenly in my 50s, it's over.' He said he 'lost' regardless of the trial's outcome and that he will carry that for the rest of his life.
The trial continues in Fairfax, Virginia, with Heard's legal team yet to cross-examine Depp. Heard has denied all allegations of physical abuse and will present her own version of events later in proceedings.
