Johnny Depp-Amber Heard: From co-stars to Court, how ex-couple’s relationship had an ugly fallout

In one of the most shocking series of public allegations and counter-allegations, ex-couple Johhny Depp and Amber Heard are currently battling it out in a Fairfax, Virginia Court. Depp has filed a defamation case against his former wife alleging that a 2018 op-ed written by Heard in The Washinton Post has cost him his Hollywood career. Depp said the accusations and the article made him a Hollywood outcast and cost him his role in the lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Owing to the trial, Depp also lost out on the Fantastic Beasts franchise, after featuring in two movies. 

Read: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial: The individual net worth of the actors and ex-couple

Heard has alleged that she is a domestic abuse victim and that Depp hurt him physically on multiple occasions. In the recent trial in the US, Heard also claimed that she was sexually assaulted by Depp during their relationship, among other allegations that Depp is trying to defend himself from.

As the trial continues and public interest in the couple’s lives is at an all-time high, we take a look back at the relationship Depp and Heard shared since 2009 and when and how things spiraled out of control.  

Read: Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial: 10 shocking allegations actors and ex-couple made against each other

—  Depp and Heard first met in 2009 on a movie set. It was a Depp-produced film Rum Diary, based upon an initially unpublished novel by the late Hunter S Thompson.

— Depp and his longtime partner Vanessa Paradis, who share two children, Lily-Rose and John Christopher, parted ways in 2012.

— Heard and Depp started dating shortly afterwards. Depp portrayed the early part of their relationship as a classic Hollywood romance.

Read: Films Johnny Depp lost amidst legal trouble with Amber Heard; does he have new projects? Find out

— Depp would call Heard “Slim,” while she called him “Steve,” nicknames used by the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall characters in the 1944 film To Have and Have Not. Depp, 58, said he was also cognizant of the age difference between himself and Heard, 36, and compared it to the 25-year gap between Bogart and Bacall. 

— Depp and Heard got engaged in 2014 and in 2015,  they married each other in Los Angeles. Things started to fall apart after marriage. Heard filed for divorce after 15 months of marriage. 

Depp said Heard made little digs at him, demeaned and berated him. The insults escalated into full-fledged circular arguments. Heard began physically attacking him, Depp said. In one of the ugly encounters between the two, Depp said Heard threw two vodka bottles at him and the second of them severed his finger and exposed his bone. At the hospital, Depp said he lied to protect Heard and told the doctors that he had injured himself. Heard’s lawyers contend he cut his own finger.

The Court is looking at another one of the ex-couple’s ugly incidents, which dates back to before their marriage in 2014 when they were on a flight. Heard’s lawyers claim that he assaulted Heard on the flight. He claimed that he locked himself in the flight’s bathroom after having some drugs and a glass of champagne. At the time, Depp allegedly sent a text to Paul Bettany in which he expressed a desire to kill and defile Heard. After saying he wanted to burn her, Depp wrote, “Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will (expletive) her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.”

— In 2016, one year after their marriage, Heard filed for divorce and got a restraining order issued against Depp. 

— Depp denied the accusations and a USD 7 million (Rs 53.53 crore) settlement was reached out of court in August 2016. Heard donated the money to charity.

— Heard wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in December of 2018 about the treatment of women in domestic abuse cases. She did not mention Depp’s name.

— In 2019, Depp sued Heard for defaming him in the op-ed.

(With AP News inputs)