Amber Heard sparred with Johnny Depp’s lawyer when cross-examination was launched on Monday afternoon. The 36-year-old actress seemed particularly embarrassed when the topic of her $ 7 million divorce settlement was brought up, which was never fully donated to charity as promised. Heard was also grilled over not seeking medical attention after Depp’s numerous alleged attacks.
Depp’s attorney, Camille Vasquez, set things in motion by asking Heard, “Mr. Depp has not looked at you once, this whole lawsuit, has he?”
“Not that I have noticed, no,” it Aquaman star replied.
“You’ve looked at him many times though, haven’t you?” said Vasquez.
“Yes I have,” Heard replied.
“You know exactly why Mr. Depp does not want to look back on you, do you?” Vasquez asked. “He promised you would never see his eyes again, is he?”
In July 2016, two months after Heard filed a temporary restraining order, she arranged a meeting with Depp in San Francisco. The couple’s former agent testified during the trial that it was because the actress wanted to get back together with Depp, something she denied earlier on Monday. (“I wanted to minimize the enmity, I wanted to reconcile that way. I did not want to be with him again.”)
An audio recording of the meeting was played before the jury, where Depp tells Heard from then on: “We do not need to see each other again … You will not see my eyes again.”
Vasquez said to Heard, “He kept that promise, didn’t he?”
“As far as I know, he can not look at me,” Heard replied.
“He does not want to look at you, does he, Ms. Heard?” said Vasquez.
“He can not,” Heard shot back.
The voltage did not decrease from there. Heard was shown photos from several events from 2014 to 2015 in which she appears unharmed, hours or days after alleged violent incidents with Depp.
After the Met Gala in 2014, Heard testified that Depp hit her so hard that she thought he was breaking her nose. Heard did not seek medical attention and went to Spike TV’s Don Rickles: Only one night event the following night with Depp.
When asked if she was seeking medical treatment for what she claims was a three-day hostage situation in Australia in March 2015, Heard replied: “I was not seeking medical treatment for Australia, no.”
“Not for the rape?” Vasquez asked.
Heard, shaking at the word, replied, “No, I have not told anyone.” The actress testified earlier this month that Depp penetrated her with a liquor bottle and that she was bleeding afterwards.
Depp agreed to pay Heard $ 7 million when they settled their divorce in 2016. The money came in installments, but was paid in full in February 2018. The court showed a clip of Heard on a talk show in October 2018, in which she said, that she donated the entire settlement to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital because she “wanted nothing” from her ex-husband.
“I have not been able to meet these obligations yet,” Heard admitted under oath.
Earlier on Monday, Heard said under direct investigation that she was unable to fulfill her $ 3.5 million pledge to each charity, “because Johnny sued me for $ 50 million.” Vasquez noted, however, that Heard had the full settlement for 13 months before she was sued by Depp over her 2018 statement in Washington Post. Vasquez suggested that Heard “wanted Mr. Depp’s money” and that she only promised to donate to the good press.
“You wanted to be seen … as a noble victim of domestic violence,” Vasquez said.
Heard shot back: “I have never, ever wanted to be seen as a victim. I have never called myself that either.”
Vasquez said Heard lied under oath in the British trial when she testified that “my entire divorce settlement was donated to charity.” This led to a back and forth about the difference between the words “mortgage” and “donation” when Heard said she promised the money to charity, which she still intends to fulfill.
“I use ‘promise’ and ‘donation’ synonymously,” Heard testified.
“I do not,” Vasquez replied, noting how “most of the money” that has been donated to the ACLU and CHLA in Heard’s name is not from the actress, but rather Elon Musk.
“I think Elon has made a donation in my honor in one of the years,” Heard confirmed, maintaining that the Tesla boss’s contribution “does not count in my promise.”
Earlier on Monday, Heard testified that Musk donated $ 500,000 to each charity “in my honor.”
“Elon, who was my girlfriend at the time, had her own charitable contributions, which he provided,” she told the court. Heard associated with Musk at the Met Gala 2016 weeks before filing for divorce.
“I did not recognize [Elon] until we started talking [on the red carpet] and he reminded me that we had met each other once before, “she told the court.
Heard “ended up going alone” to the Met Gala when she and Depp were not on speaking terms from their fight on her 30th birthday in April 2016.
“I was sitting next to an empty spot for Johnny, which they cleared as soon as we realized he was actually lining me up on the red carpet,” Heard declared.
As for Musk, the actress said the entrepreneur “seemed like a real gentleman.”
“He was really sweet. He was sitting at a nearby table and we talked that night and eventually became friends,” she added.
The Heard team issued the following statement prior to the cross-examination:
There’s an old adage from litigation lawyers: When the facts are on your side, then argue with the facts. When the facts are not on your side, knock loose on the podium. Today, we expect Depp’s lawyers to beat the victim instead. We fear it will be equal parts shameful and desperate. And the overwhelming evidence – the truth – is not on Depp’s side.
The one thing we suspect Depp’s lawyers will avoid is the central question in this lawsuit: does Amber or a woman have the first right of change to freedom of speech.
MORE: Amber Heard claims Johnny Depp “kicked me in the back” over James Franco’s jealousy