Amber Heard has accused Johnny Depp of sexually assaulting her while she was black-out drunk near the end of their marriage. The claim was leveled during Depp’s ongoing defamation trial against Heard being held at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia.
Depp is suing Heard for defamation after she wrote an op-ed published in the Washington Post claiming to be a survivor of domestic abuse.
His legal team, Ben Chew and Camille Vasquez, have denied the accusation.
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“These fictitious claims were never made at the onset of Amber’s allegations in 2016, and only advantageously surfaced years later once she was sued for defamation after noting in her op-ed that she was a victim of ‘sexual violence,’” a spokesperson for Depp said in a statement. “Words are key in a defamation case and conveniently, this allegation only came after that. This follows a pattern of her elaborate, erroneous claims which have continued to change and evolve over time for the purpose of Hollywood shock value of which Amber has mastered and used to exploit a serious social movement.”
Depp lost a similar lawsuit to the British tabloid, The Sun, which had labeled him a “wife-beater.”
The Pirates of the Caribbean actor claims that he lost out on a $40 million offer to appear in a sequel in the franchise as a result of his tarnished reputation.
[Via]