Johnny Depp is once again denying that he mutilated his own digit, despite a text message to his doctor in which he says, “I cut the top of my middle finger off.”
The text message he wrote in 2015 to his personal physician, Dr. David Kipper, was released by ex-wife Amber Heard’s attorney during Depp’s cross-examination on the stand — and his fourth day of testimony in total — amid a trial of dueling defamation lawsuits, which is being live-streamed on the Law & Crime YouTube Channel.
Pirates of the Caribbean actor Depp is suing Aquaman star Heard for $50 million for defamation for what he alleges are false claims of domestic abuse against him that have hurt his career. Heard is counter-suing, also for defamation, for $100 million. Each ex-spouse maintains it was the other person who was abusive, not them.
In Depp’s response on the stand to his texting to his doctor, “I cut the top of my middle finger off,” the actor said that was just the way he worded it, and did not literally mean that he actually cut his own finger off.
In past testimony, Depp has accused Heard of cutting off his finger by throwing a vodka bottle at him. Heard’s side of the story is that Depp cut off his own finger. This all allegedly went down in Australia while Depp was filming Pirates of the Caribbean 5. After the incident, Depp wrote messages to Heard on the furniture in the house where it happened, in his own blood, in what he described as a nervous breakdown.
In another text message submitted by Heard’s lawyer, Benjamin Rottenborn, Depp thanks his then-mother-in-law to talk about how lucky he is to have his then-wife for support.
“Never a second has gone by that she didn’t look out for me or have her eyes on me to make sure that I was ok,” he writes in a text message from 2014, before the finger injury incident happened.
Amidst these text messages and others, as well as audiotapes of Depp and Heard arguing, many objections and sidebars occurred among the lawyers and Judge Penney Azcarate in the Fairfax, Virginia courtroom.
Rottenborn concluded his cross-examination of Depp Monday morning by confirming with the actor that 2016 was the first time Heard accused him of domestic abuse — to which Depp replied, “that’s correct.”
Depp previously testified that he initially lied to doctors, telling them he cut off his own finger, because he didn’t want to put Heard’s “name in that mix.” Last week, Heard’s lawyers presented an audiotape of Heard seemingly begging Depp not to cut himself in a separate incident.
No matter who you think might be more in the wrong, there’s little doubt the trial thus far has painted a rather sad portrait of a relationship that went on the rocks. In previous testimony, the couple’s former marriage counselor said she believed the pair engaged in “mutual abuse.”
Depp’s initial lawsuit centers around a 2018 op-ed Heard penned for the Washington Post, in which she describes herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Though Depp isn’t named in the article, he argues the piece implies him as the alleged abuser — a claim which he denies.
Heard herself is expected to take the stand and testify at some point during the trial unfolding in Fairfax, Virginia. Other famous names on the witness list slated to testify, either in person or via video link, include tech mogul Elon Musk, and actors James Franco and Paul Bettany.
