Johnny Depp had accused Amber Heard of 'painting on' her bruises so that she could obtain restraining order
Following the release of explosive recordings where Amber Heard taunts ex-husband Johnny Depp and dares him to 'tell the world' he was a victim of domestic abuse because no one would believe him, more details about their contentious and highly-publicized split have begun making the rounds again.
These include a counter allegation made by Depp in the aftermath of a Washington Post op-ed she wrote where she seemingly accused him of domestic abuse in which he says she "painted on" her bruises.
Depp and Heard had met on the set of 2011 comedy 'The Rum Diary' before tying the knot in Los Angeles in February 2015. The marriage fell apart in little over a year, with Heard obtaining a temporary restraining order against the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star in May 2016 after accusing him of abuse.
While he denied it, the couple filed for divorce and eventually settled it out of court, with Heard donating her $7M towards a children’s hospital and the domestic violence unit of the American Civil Liberties Union.
It had seemed amicable enough, with a joint statement saying their relationship was "intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love" and that "there was never any intent of physical or emotional harm."
But all that changed after Heard wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post in December 2018 describing herself as a victim of domestic abuse and implying that Depp was responsible. In turn, Depp filed a $50M defamation lawsuit against her.
"I have denied Ms. Heard’s allegations vehemently since she first made them in May 2016 when she walked into court to obtain a temporary restraining order with painted-on bruises that witnesses and surveillance footage show she did not possess each day of the preceding week … I will continue to deny them for the rest of my life," he wrote in the declaration.
"I never abused Ms. Heard or any other woman," he continued. "She was the perpetrator, and I was the victim. While mixing prescription amphetamines and non-prescription drugs with alcohol, Ms. Heard committed innumerable acts of domestic violence against me, often in the presence of a third-party witness, which in some instances caused me serious bodily harm."
He had also accused her of profiting personally from writing the op-ed, stating that she "became a darling of the #MeToo movement, was the first actress named a Human Rights Champion of the United Nations Human Rights Office, was appointed ambassador of women's rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, and was hired by L'Oréal Paris as its global spokesperson" after muddying his name.
