Johnny Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard were seen arriving separately on July 7 to a London courthouse as the actor’s libel trial against News Group Newspapers (NGN) and The Sun‘s executive editor Dan Wootton began. Heard, 34, wore a red face covering and a black midi dress and heels, holding hands with two women as she made her way into the courthouse. Depp, 57, covered up with a black bandana and aviator sunglasses, and waved to photographers as he stepped inside for the first day of the three-week trial.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star is suing British paper The Sun‘s parent company and Wootton over an article they published in April 2018, which called him a “wife beater” and alleged that there’s “overwhelming evidence” that he attacked Heard during their marriage. Depp vehemently denies the allegations, which include accounts of an alleged 14 separate incidences of domestic violence, like Heard’s story about a fight that ended in Depp cutting off the tip of his finger (he disputes how he lost his finger).
In the April 2018 column, Wootton asked how JK Rowling could be “genuinely happy” with Depp being cast in the Harry Potter spinoff film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, considering the allegations made by Heard. NGN is defending the article as true, saying that Depp was allegedly “controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs” between early 2013 and 2016, when their marriage ended.
Depp is serving as the first witness in his libel trial. He tried and failed to block her from being in the courtroom during the court proceedings, according to our sister site, Deadline. However, throughout the trial, the court will hear from two of Depp’s other exes, Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder. Both said that Depp was never violent toward them.
Depp has a separate libel lawsuit in Virginia, filed against Heard herself, over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post. In the piece, which never names her ex-husband, Heard wrote that she received “the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.” That trial is scheduled to begin in January 2021.