Johnny Depp is filing a $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, alleging that her domestic abuse allegations are nothing more than an “elaborate hoax,” according to a new report.
In court documents obtained by The Blast, Depp claimed that Heard aimed to generate publicity as “a public figure representing domestic abuse” and to advance her career.
Depp took issue with an op-ed Heard wrote for the Washington Post in December 2018, according to the court documents.
EXCLUSIVE: Johnny Depp files $50 million lawsuit against Amber Heard, claims abuse claims were “elaborate hoax.” https://t.co/yKl6JVd75D
— The Blast (@TheBlastNews) March 1, 2019
Heard never directly mentioned Depp by name, acknowledged Depp’s attorney. However, he said the entire op-ed “depends on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her,” reported The Blast.
The court documents alleged that Heard’s allegations were “conclusively refuted by two separate responding police officers, a litany of neutral third-party witnesses, and 87 newly obtained surveillance camera videos.”
“Ms. Heard is not a victim of domestic abuse; she is a perpetrator,” the lawsuit stated.
In the lawsuit, Depp detailed an incident one month into his marriage with Heard where he claimed she threw a glass vodka bottle at him, which shattered when it made contact with his hand. Depp said his finger had to be surgically reattached and that Heard “disseminated false accounts of this incident, casting Mr. Depp as the perpetrator of his own injury.”
The lawsuit alleges that photos which Heard posted, seemingly displaying injuries to her face that she suffered from Depp, were merely a ruse for publicity.
The lawsuit also cites an incident between Depp and Heard on May 21, 2016, when Heard said Depp attacked her. Depp claimed a neighbor gave a declaration saying “he repeatedly interacted with Ms. Heard, at close range, without makeup, and utterly unmarked and uninjured in the days between May 22 and May 27, 2016,” reported The Blast.
Two police officers also “testified under oath that they closely observed Ms. Heard’s face in good light on May 21, 2016 and saw no signs of any injury,” the lawsuit stated.
Tonight at the Cannes Film Festival I was proud to stand in solidarity with my sisters in support of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. pic.twitter.com/eIojsJzsy9
— Amber Heard (@realamberheard) May 12, 2018
As a result of the highly publicized incident, Heard was granted a temporary restraining order against Depp after she claimed to “live in fear that Johnny will return to the residence unannounced to terrorize me, physically and emotionally,” reported The Blast.
In conclusion, Depp’s attorney stated, “Ms. Heard also knew that her elaborate hoax worked: as a result of her false allegations against Mr. Depp, Ms. Heard became a darling of the #MeToo movement, was the first actress named a Human Rights Champion of the United Nations Human Rights Office, was appointed ambassador on women’s rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, and was hired by L’Oreal Paris as its global spokesperson.”
Depp also said that the timing of the op-ed damaged his career, and he was dropped from Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise just days later.