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19th Jun 2022

Amber Heard claims never before seen text messages prove physical abuse

Simon Bland

H

‘Johnny did a number on me tonight’, reads one of the alleged messages

Actress Amber Heard has claimed that newly released text messages aired during her recent Dateline interview with host Savannah Guthrie are evidence of the alleged physical abuse that she suffered during her relationship with former husband Johnny Depp.

The messages – which Heard, 36, claims were sent to friends and family during her relationship with Depp, 59 – were shown to NBC reporters by the actress’s legal team during the filming of her recent sit-down interview which aired on Friday June 17.

In one message that Heard alleges was sent to her therapist on December 16, 2015, the Aquaman star claims that her former spouse “did a number on me tonight” before adding that she needs “some real help.”

As per The Independent, the full message reads: “Johnny did a number on me tonight. I’m safe and with my support tonight but I need some real help. Can I come tomorrow. I called earlier because I thought I had a concussion and didn’t know if I should have called police. But I have a nurse close to me.”

In an additional message, the star – who was ordered to pay approximately $8m in damages to Depp after a jury ruled largely in the Pirates of the Caribbean star’s favour at the end of their recent high-profile defamation trial – details further incidents of alleged abuse.

“I keep not fighting back,” she said in a message that was reportedly sent to her father in 2014. “He literally kicked me and called me a [redacted] in front of everyone on the plane. It’s humiliating.”

Heard’s team claim the message was sent around the time that she alleges Depp kicked her on an airplane. The incident formed part of the pair’s recent defamation trial with the Edward Scissorhands‘ star claiming that he did not attack her whilst on a plane.

According to Dateline host Guthrie, the judge in the duo’s recent defamation trial ruled that these text messages were inadmissible in court.

Depp sued Heard for $50m in defamation damages following an opinion piece she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018 on the topic of domestic abuse. As a result, she counter sued her former spouse for $100m before a jury ruled largely in Depp’s favour, awarding him $10m in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages, which were later reduced to $350,000.

Elsewhere in the same interview, Heard claimed that she had handed over a binder’s worth of notes from her therapist that reportedly detailed years of physical and sexual abuse by Depp – however the court ultimately dismissed them as ‘hearsay’.

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