When Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were still married, they went to a marriage counselor to try to save their relationship. That marriage counselor testified in court that the marriage between the two actors was “toxic.”
The testimony came during Depp’s multimillion dollar defamation trial against his ex-wife.
“He had been well-controlled for 30 years, both had been victims of abuse…but I thought he had been well-controlled for decades, and then with Miss Heard, I think he was triggered,” testified Laurel Anderson, a clinical psychologist and the couple’s former marriage counselor.
Anderson counseled Heard and Depp in 2015, the same year they were married.
She testified Heard told her she was the target of her husband’s verbal cruelty and that Heard suffered from abandonment issues.
“If he was going to leave to deescalate from the fight, she would strike him to keep him there,” Anderson said. “She would rather engage in a fight rather than have him leave.
“I think [Depp] may have initiated it on occasions, too. That I am less sure on,” she said.
Heard’s former assistant also took the stand.
When asked if she had ever seen Heard cry, Kate James said yes. When asked how often, James, who Heard fired, replied, “She was a pretty dramatic person. It is hard to put a number on it.”
She described Heard as “extremely difficult” and “abusive.”
When asked how she was abusive, James testified, “Screaming at me, screaming at me on the phone and in front of other people. Barrages of text messages. She leapt up out of her chair, put her face in my face, she was spitting in my face, telling me how dare I ask for the salary I was asking for.”
Heard was not fond of Depp’s friends, according to the assistant.
“She told me she did not like hanging out in her house because it was boring and they were all old,” she said.
Fans and supporters of both Depp and Heard have packed the courtroom in Fairfax County, Virginia.
About 150 seats are reserved for the public. The trial is expected to last several more weeks.