A former employee of Johnny Depp gave evidence Wednesday as the actor’s libel trial against the Sun newspaper continued.
Ben King, who looked after the homes in which Depp and Amber Heard stayed while in Australia, London, and Vancouver, during three separate periods between 2014 and 2016, said the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star was “always polite.”
Depp is suing the Sun over an article that described him as a “wife-beater” — something he strongly denies.
King claimed he was told Depp was a teetotaler when he interviewed for the job, the Guardian reported, adding he didn’t see him drink, just Heard.
“He seemed to smoke cannabis sometimes around the house,” King said.
He continued, “I frequently witnessed Ms. Heard goading and attempting to provoke Mr. Depp. I never witnessed Mr. Depp be violent or unkind towards Ms. Heard or indeed anyone else.”
“It was Ms. Heard who was drinking the wine,” King, who made it clear he wasn’t accusing Heard of anything, said. “I believe she would regularly drink at least one or two bottles a night. I made a tally of the bottles of wine left on the counter or in the bins when I arrived each morning. I was usually the first one there. I would often see Ms. Heard drinking wine.
“In hindsight, during the month in London, and thereafter during my time in Australia, I saw Ms. Heard as the antagonizer. Mr. Depp seemed keen to walk out of, or away from, arguments. It appeared it was Ms. Heard who would want to continue them and pursue him to do so.”
He also discussed the Australia fight in which Depp’s finger was severed. Depp claimed Heard did it with a vodka bottle during the March 2015 trip.
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King said Heard would “harangue Mr. Depp during the arguments, which seemed worse than they had been in London.”
He added of the flight back: “I did notice on one arm that she had a couple of marks which… looked like cuts in fairly uniform lines at a sort of diagonal angle downwards.
“I recall saying to her when we landed [in Los Angeles] that she may want to put her sleeve down as there might be paparazzi in the airport… She did not refuse but she chose not to.”
During the same flight King said Heard had asked: “Have you ever been so angry with someone that you just lost it?” to which he insisted he had not.
Depp and Heard met on the set of the 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary” and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard, a model and actress, filed for divorce the following year, and the divorce was finalized in 2017.
The case continues.
