In newly leaked audio, actress Amber Heard, 33, can be heard admitting to "hitting" ex-husband Johnny Depp.
"I'm sorry that I didn’t ... hit you across the face in a proper slap, but I was hitting you, it was not punching you. Babe, you’re not punched,” the actress says in the audio, which was reportedly recorded on her phone during an "informal therapy" session.
"I don’t know what the motion of my actual hand was, but you’re fine, I did not hurt you, I did not punch you, I was hitting you."
Since the audio was released, fans of the actor have said they are looking for "justice for Johnny Depp". The hashtag has been trending on Twitter.
A history of domestic violence
The former couple has a history of domestic violence.
In February 2015, actors Johnny Depp, 56, and Amber Heard, 33, married in a private Bahamas wedding ceremony. Less than a year-and-a-half later, Heard filed for divorce in May 2016, citing "irreconcilable differences." One week later, she filed a domestic violence restraining order, which was granted on May 27.
At the time, photos of Heard with a bruised face were also circulated, and Depp's lawyers said: "[Heard] is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse."
In August that year, video footage was released of Depp throwing bottles with Heard in the room. By August 16, their legal battle had come to an end and the actor paid his ex-wife a reported $7 million (Dh25.7 million), which she donated in full to the American Civil Liberties Union, with a "focus to help stop violence against women, and to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles".
In December 2018, Heard, an ambassador on women's rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote about her experience with abuse in a Washington Post op-ed. She does not name Depp.
"I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change," Heard's op-ed is titled. In the piece she says, "Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.
"Friends and advisers told me I would never again work as an actress – that I would be blacklisted. A movie I was attached to recast my role. I had just shot a two-year campaign as the face of a global fashion brand, and the company dropped me. Questions arose as to whether I would be able to keep my role of Mera in the movies Justice League and Aquaman."
In January 2019, Depp's legal team "filed a partial list of evidence that we will use to disprove the fraudulent underlying allegations against [him]". The lawyers claimed to have "dozens of video security tapes" as evidence against Heard. Two months later, he filed a defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife for the Washington Post op-ed, something her lawyers described as "frivolous".
Depp: 'We are a crime scene'
In the newly released audio, however, the Aquaman actress can be heard admitting to hitting her ex-husband.
"You are such a baby. Grow the **** up Johnny," Heard says. "You poke an animal enough, it is eventually, it doesn't matter how friendly it is, it's not cool."
At one stage Depp admits to being aggressive himself, saying: "'I left last night. Honestly, I swear to you because I just couldn't take the idea of more physicality, more physical abuse on each other."
He adds: "Because had we continued it, it would have gotten ******* bad. And baby, I told you this once. I'm scared to death we are a ******* crime scene right now."
The audio has been obtained by the Daily Mail. The British newspaper "understands" there are more tapes of its kind out there.
