Content warning: This story discusses sexual assault and abuse.
Johnny Depp is denying the sexual assault allegations his ex-wife Amber Heard‘s lawyer made against him on the first day of his $50 million defamation trial.
The former couple is squaring off in the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia after Depp sued Heard over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post about surviving domestic violence. While the 35-year-old never mentioned Depp by name in the article—entitled “Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence—and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change“—her attorney Ben Rottenborn now claims it was Depp who was the alleged abuser.
“Tragically, it’s true,” Rottenborn told the courtroom in Virginia in April 11 during his opening arguments. “Amber did suffer sexual violence at the hands of Depp.”
He also said the actress suffered domestic abuse by Depp that “took many forms,” including physical, emotional, verbal and psychological abuse.
“You will hear in the most graphic and horrifying terms about the violence that she suffered,” Rottenborn said about Heard’s upcoming testimony. “You’ll hear that straight from her. She will get on the stand and she will tell you that. It happened.”
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