Johnny Depp Testifies In Defamation Trial He's Never "Struck Any Woman" In His Life

Johnny Depp has insisted he has "not ever struck a woman".

The 58-year-old actor is suing his ex-wife Amber Heard for US$50 million (S$68 mil) for defamation after she wrote a piece for The Washington Post, in which she described herself as a victim of domestic violence, but the 35-year-old actress didn't name the 'Dark Shadows' star so she has countersued for US$100 million.

On Tuesday (Apr 19), the Pirates of the Caribbean star took to the stand at the Fairfax County Courthouse to defend himself against allegations he was physically abusive.

Depp slammed his ex-wife's allegations as "heinous and disturbing" and insisted they are "not based in any species of the truth".

Admitting they had argued during their marriage, the Black Mass actor insisted: "I never struck Ms Heard in that way, nor have I struck any woman in my life."

The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them actor claimed Heard's accusations "sorta permeated the industry" and he was keen to take the stand to defend himself for the sake of his and former partner Vanessa Paradis' two children, Lily-Rose, 22, and Jack, 20, who were teenagers when the allegations were made public.

He said:"I felt it was my responsibility to clear my name and my children of this horrid thing that they were having to read about their father.

"My goal is the truth, because it killed me that people I'd met over the years... would think that I was a fraud and had lied to them".

He went on to discuss the impact the allegations have had on his Hollywood career.

He said: "It's very strange when you're Cinderella, so to speak, and then in zero seconds you're Quasimodo. I didn't deserve that. I pride myself on honesty and truth. Truth is the only thing I'm interested in, lies will get you nowhere. I'm obsessed with the truth."

Depp was also asked by his lawyer to talk about his childhood in Kentucky and the abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of his mother.

He said: "I could see when she [his mother] was about to head into a situation where she was going to get riled up and someone was going to get it. And generally it was me...

“We were all somewhat shellshocked. She’d walk past and you’d shield yourself because you didn’t know what was going to happen.”

The Edward Scissorhands star was "very disappointed in" his father when he left the abusive marriage as he thought he left in a "cowardly and sneaky" manner, but realised the truth of the situation and his misconception years later.

Depp also spoke of his drug use on the test, where he admitted to developing an addiction to pain medication following an injury on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean 4, taking his mother's "nerve pills" from the age of just 11, and indulging in various substances over the years to "numb myself of the ghosts, the wraiths that were still with me from my youth".

He insisted Heard had made some "plainly false" allegations relating to his use of drugs and alcohol.

Highlighting various long periods of sobriety over the years and explaining how he had detoxed from the prescription drugs, he told the court: “The characterisation of my ‘substance abuse’ that’s been delivered by Ms. Heard is grossly embellished.

“And I’m sorry to say, but a lot of it is just plainly false. I think that it was an easy target for her to hit. Because once you’ve trusted somebody for a certain amount of years, and you’ve told them all the secrets of your life, that information can of course be used against you.”

Depp also looked back on the early days of his relationship with Amber and admitted she seemed "too good to be true", though he was aware of things that "might be a bit of a dilemma at some point".

He said: “In the beginning of my relationship with Ms Heard, from what I recall, it was as if she was too good to be true.

“She was attentive, she was loving, she was smart, she was kind, she was funny, she was understanding and we had many things in common.

“For that year or year and a half it was amazing, there were a couple of things that stuck in my head that I noticed that I thought might be a little bit of a dilemma at some point.”

He recalled how Heard developed a "routine" when he came home from work, in which she would give him a glass of wine and take his boots off, but when he once disrupted the ritual by removing his own footwear, the Danish Girl star became "visibly shaken" and upset.

He said: “Once you notice something like that then you start to notice other little tidbits and things that come out.

“Then within a year or year and a half she had become another person almost.”

Later in his testimony, Depp told the court how Heard would get upset if he wanted to stay up late and watch TV when she went to bed.

Depp will return to the stand on Wednesday (Apr 20), while Heard is scheduled to testify later in the trial.

Watch Depp's testimony here:

— BANG SHOWBIZ

Photo: TPG News/Click Photos