This combination of photos shows actors Johnny Depp, left and Amber Heard in the courtroom for Depp’s defamation case against Hurd in Fairfax County Court on April 12, 2022 in Fairfax, Va.Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images
Amber Hurd’s former personal assistant said she had never seen the actress physically abused by then-husband Johnny Depp – but she said Hurd once spat in her face when she asked for a higher salary.
Hurd fell into screaming fits of blind rage, sending inconsistent text messages at 4 a.m. and was often drunk and addicted to illicit drugs, Kate James testified in a video released in court Thursday during Depp’s defamation trial. against Hurd.
Depp, on the other hand, was very calm, almost shy, “like a complete southern gentleman,” James said.
The Pirates of the Caribbean actor accused Hurd of indirectly slandering him in a 2018 article she wrote for The Washington Post. Hurd describes himself in the article as “a public figure representing domestic violence.” The play does not say Depp’s name. But his lawyers say he is clearly referring to a restraining order that Hurd requested in May 2016, as soon as Depp told her he wanted a divorce.
Depp denies abusing Hurd, but Hurd’s lawyers say the evidence will prove he did. They claim that the actor’s denials are not credible because he often drinks and uses drugs to the point of obscuration and fails to remember what he did.
James’ video testimony offers a reverse view: Depp was peaceful, she said, while Hurd was often intoxicated and verbally abusive, including to his own mother and sister.
“Her poor sister was treated like a dog that kicks you in general,” James said.
James, who worked for Hurd from 2012 to 2015, said she was paid “very poorly”. She said she was hired on an initial salary of $ 25 an hour and that her duties ranged from dry cleaning at Hurd to talking to the actress’ Hollywood agents.
James said she was also tasked with taking two copies of each of Hurd’s magazines and storing them in the garage to keep Depp from seeing them. Hurd fell into a “blind rage” when James failed to put the magazines in the garage, James said.
Regarding Hurd and Depp’s time together, James said Hurd was a “very dramatic man” who was deeply insecure about the relationship. Hurd often called James to cry and complain about Depp, she said.
“I remember calling me once when she was alone in New York, crying and walking the streets,” James said. She said she told Hurd to go inside: “I was worried that the paparazzi might take pictures of her.
Part of the testimony focused on a text message Depp sent to James after he and Hurd broke up. Depp’s text read: “Come for a place in purple and we’ll fix her loose ass nice and well.”
A lawyer asked if “purple spot” meant wine and if “her” meant Hurd. James said he did not want to speculate.
“That’s the way he writes,” James told Depp. “It’s very coincidental and you don’t question it. … He writes in a very abstract way. ”
The lawyers also presented a video of Laurel Anderson, a couple therapist who worked with Hurd and Depp in 2015, when they were 29 and 52, respectively.
Anderson said they both suffered childhood violence. As a couple, they were involved in “mutual abuse”, she testified.
Hurd’s father beat her, Anderson said, adding: “She was proud if she felt disrespected to start a fight.
Hurd would also rather fight Depp than see him leave, and “she’ll hit him to keep him there,” Anderson said.
The therapist remembered a time when Hurd told her that Depp was “getting stronger,” as she would say, on many drugs.
“And she hit him because he was inconsistent and said he was with another woman,” Anderson said. She noted that Depp’s mother was in the hospital at the time.
Anderson said Depp told her that Hurd “gave as well as she received.” She also said that in at least one session in which she saw Hurd alone, the actress told her that Depp had hit her. She said Hurd showed bruises, both in photos and in person.
Anderson said Hurd also told her that Depp had said at one point, “Nobody likes you. You get fame from me. I fall in love with you. You’re a whore. “
Anderson also said that Hurd’s “hammer-speaking style” and habit of cutting Depp had overwhelmed him.
Hurd “wanted to get a divorce,” but he didn’t either, and he was still figuring out what to do, Anderson said. “She loved him. He loved her. She was not stupid. She knew that what they were doing was not healthy.
Both Depp and Hurd are expected to testify at Fairfax District Court’s six-week trial, along with actors Paul Bethany and James Franco and technology entrepreneur Elon Musk.
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