Celebrity
Amber Heard Admits To Not Honoring Her Promised $3.5M Donation To Charity
She blamed Johnny Depp for suing her and making her broke.
‘Aquaman’ star Amber Heard has been testifying since last week on the stand after countersuing Johnny Depp who said she lied and defamed him with her op-ed for the Washington Post in 2018.
The latest reveal was how Heard lied about ever donating to the ACLU with the $7 million she received in settlement from her ex-husband.
In stark contrast were her numerous claims under oath that she’d donated the money for charity after winning the libel case against Depp in 2020. She claimed, “$7million in total was donated – I split it between the ACLU and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. I wanted nothing.”
In an interview on RTL Late Night, a Dutch TV show, she said the same thing she later told the court in 2020.
Now, Heard had revealed that she’s not been honest about her pledge and told the court, “I fully intend to honor all of my pledges. I would love for him to stop suing me so I can.”
She reasoned that it was because of the $50 million Depp sued out of her back in March 2019.
ACLU Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel Terence Dougherty confirm that so far, only a total of $1.3 million has been donated, at least on her behalf.
Heard donated $350,000 directly in December 2018, then $100,000 was paid by Depp, $350,000 was paid from Fidelity, an investment company, and a mysterious $500,000 donation from which Dougherty believed to be Elon Musk.
She claimed that she “didn’t care about the money” and only accepted the settlement to end the court.
Lawyer Elaine Bredehoft inquired the actress about her thoughts regarding the settlement money she’s received to which she answered, “I didn’t care about the money. I was told if I didn’t agree to a number it could be overturned, we would never settle. I took far less than what they were offering and what I was entitled to.”
“I just wanted my safety and my future and he compromised that… I wanted him to leave me alone. I’ve been saying that since 2016,” she added.
Shortly after ending her relationship with Depp, Heard began dating Tesla CEO Elon Musk. And their meeting was when Heard said Depp “stood her up” on the carpet for Met Gala 2016. She dated the man in April but broke up with him in August the next year.
Amber Heard arrived at Met Gala 2016 red carpet alone.
Amber showed the makeup palette that she used to cover up her bruises.
She told the court, “I am typically photographed in LA when I leave the house, paparazzi types of photographs. No woman wants to walk around with a bruise on her face.”
The actress then explained how she used her “bruise kit” to cover up the injuries after making sure they don’t swell as much.
Ironically, it was also the same palette that had been called out by the brand itself, Milani, for being released way after their divorce was settled. The product, the Milani Conceal + Perfect All-in-One Correcting Kit, was released in 2017.
She took her stand and explained that this was not “the exact one” she used during her relationship with Depp.
She’s also defended against the human feces that was found on the bed supposedly from her.
The incident, which occurred in February 2016, was after their argument in their penthouse in LA. Right before her 30th birthday, Depp told the court it was Amber’s. Now Amber says it was the dog.
She was asked by her lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, “Did you commit any kind of prank?”
“Absolutely not. First of all, I don’t think that’s funny. I don’t know what grown woman does. I was not in a pranking mood. My life was falling apart. I was at a crossroads in my life and I’d just been attacked on my 30th birthday by my violent husband with whom I was in love.”
“I don’t think that’s funny, period. That’s disgusting.”
She’s also changed her claim of experiencing the first abuse from 2013 to 2012, saying she “had the date wrong.” Heard told the court, “You never forget it, that’s how I remember it. It changes your life. You never forget the time someone hits you like that.”
When asked the reason how she could misremember the date, she answered, “I am embarrassed to say I would have liked to have believed the period of time I had to fall in love with Johnny and he was sober and he wasn’t violent to me lasted a lot longer than it did.”
“I would have liked to have believed I wasn’t hit so early in the relationship.”
“I’d allowed myself to forget that the beginning of that period, 2012, before he got sober, was really violent and chaotic as well. I’m embarrassed to say that.”
She’s also been reviewing notes from her therapists in trying to recall all of the incidents, but concluded that they were “far too long.” She added on about the relationship, “We were together for five years almost and it was a very violent, chaotic at times very loving emotional relationship. As anyone can imagine there was a lot going on.”
“Unfortunately the violence became almost normal, especially towards the end it was just – it’s hard to say that now but the violence was almost normal. Your brain does with trauma what it does, put it away best you can. Frankly, I was shocked to see a lot of the information presented to me through my therapist’s notes.”
They’ve set “couch” as their “safe words” per Heard’s explanations on why so many parts of the recordings were cut up.
She’s also presented evidence such as when she appeared on the red carpet with injuries she claimed to be from Depp.
In another recording from March 2015, she spoke, “Adderall junkie Johnny, he’s abusive and he’s mean, he’s reactionary, anything I do and say is cause for violence. If I argue back then I’m abusive. If I don’t say anything then I’m dismissive. If I engage with him I’m part of the problem. If I don’t engage with him. If I look at him the wrong way it’s a problem. If I say the wrong thing I’m the problem.”
Heard explained that Depp “acted like independent versions of this person depending on what combination of drugs and alcohol he was on” and that it was “peaceful” when Depp was sober.
“I thought we had finally done it, he was going to be clean and sober for good. We had a wonderful period, we fell deeper in love than before. We were talking about having kids,” she told the court. “We went back to Australia, we had my parents come and visit, we were talking about babies, a farm, buying a home in California. It was a beautiful peaceful period. It was wonderful.”
She’s also claimed that Depp blew up after he drank “brown alcohol” on their honeymoon in July 2015.
She told the court, “The train trip itself was peaceful up until Johnny would start drinking brown alcohol. He’d already started drinking champagne when he wrapped on Pirates 5.”
“I wasn’t ready to accept we’d gone back to a pattern at all. On the last night on the train after this was taken Johnny and I got into argument about him wanting me to agree to him drinking liquor. An argument followed in our sleeping car.”
“Johnny slapped me across the face and got a hold of my neck and pushed me up against the wall of the car. It was a small narrow sleeper car. He was standing on the floor. I was trying to get his arms off my neck and he was squeezing my neck for what felt like a very long time.”
“Every time he’d pull me away from the car he’d slam me up against the wall. I remember trying to get his arms off my neck and remember thinking he could not even mean to kill me,” she continued. “I remember being scared he wouldn’t even mean to do it. Clawing at him, trying to get his arms away from my neck. At one point he tripped the top of my shirt, I had a breast exposed.”
“I pull at the lapel of his shirt and he rips the shirt off of him and wraps it around my neck and that’s how I woke up the next morning, I woke up with it still around my neck and a giant knot in the back of my head.”
Heard’s attorneys remain insistent on Heard’s piece which is the key matter of this defamation lawsuit as her right of free speech under the First Amendment. The Fairfax court will continue to be live-streamed for the next few weeks.
