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Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s respective teams have both issued statements after Heard’s explosive testimony on Thursday, in which she alleged Depp, 58, sexually assaulted her with a bottle, and detailed the alleged abuse she experienced at the hands of the actor.
“As Mr. Depp’s counsel correctly predicted in their opening statements last month, Ms. Heard did indeed deliver ‘the performance of her life’ in her direct examination,” a spokesperson for Depp tells PEOPLE.
“While Ms. Heard’s stories have continued to grow new and convenient details, Mr. Depp’s recollections have remained exactly the same throughout the six painful years since her first allegations were made,” Depp’s spokesperson continues. “His truth — the truth — is the same no matter the environment in which it has been presented.”
The statement concludes, “The upcoming cross examination from Mr. Depp’s team will be most telling, and will certainly highlight the many fallacies Ms. Heard has now attempted to pass off as fact throughout her convoluted testimony.
In response, a spokesperson for the 36-year-old Aquaman actress tells PEOPLE, “As evidenced by the statement just released, Mr. Depp’s defamation claim is falling apart so rapidly that his counsel are turning from prosecutor to persecutor.”
“They boast that Mr. Depp’s story has not changed. If so, since he lost the Domestic Violence Restraining Order and he resoundingly lost the libel case in the UK, perhaps he should consider a new strategy rather than the recycled approach of attacking the victim, and refusing to take responsibility for his own conduct,” the spokesperson continues.
“If Mr. Depp was truly innocent, why has he repeatedly apologized to Ms. Heard and promised to put the ‘monster away for good,’ ” Heard’s spokesperson says, adding that one of Heard’s “disappointments” is the Pirates of the Caribbean actor’s “inability to distinguish fact from fiction — a malady which appears to have spread to his legal team.”
“That same team is so panicked they are fighting tooth and nail to prevent compelling evidence and photos from being introduced,” says Heard’s spokesperson. “Small wonder Mr. Depp does not have the fortitude or courage to even look at Ms. Heard at all throughout the proceedings — as he could not in the UK trial — and, instead he doodles and snickers.”
“Mr. Depp’s behavior in this trial has been as pitiful as it was in their marriage,” the spokesperson concludes. “Apparently, they feel they must double-down on their demonstrably losing two-part strategy: distract the jury and demonize the victim.”
Depp is suing his ex-wife for defamation, arguing that her 2018 op-ed for The Washington Post about surviving domestic violence tarnished his reputation and ruined his career opportunities, even though she didn’t mention him by name in the article. He has said that after Heard’s allegations against him, he lost “nothing short of everything.”
They married in 2015, then they broke up in May 2016, when Heard sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, accusing him of abusing her. Depp denied the claims, and the former couple settled their divorce out of court in August 2016.
Depp, who has said multiple times under oath that he has never struck Heard or any woman, has testified that his “goal is the truth” as he seeks to clear his name in the trial, which is being televised live via various outlets. When Heard took the stand Wednesday, she told the jury, “I struggle to find the words to describe how painful this is. This is horrible for me to sit here for weeks and relive everything.”
Back in November 2020, Depp lost his highly publicized U.K. libel lawsuit case against British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.” The court upheld the outlet’s claims as being “substantially true” and Heard testified to back up the claims. In March 2021, the Sweeney Todd star’s attempt to overturn the decision was overruled.
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