The defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard went into Day 9 on Tuesday in Virginia, where Tara Roberts was called to the stand to testify for Team Depp.
Their testimony follows Depp’s time on the stand last week and Monday, as well as that of his property manager, who detailed what he allegedly witnessed the night the actor lost the tip of his finger. On Tuesday, Roberts — the estate manager of Depp’s island in the Bahamas — appeared virtually as she opened up about one of the alleged altercations she witnessed between the two exes as well.
Roberts said that, at first, the two were “very nice, a couple in love, she cooked for him, they took care of each other, they were a very happy couple,” before things started to change. She then detailed planning the couple’s wedding — saying the provisions included “drugs” — before discussing “an incident between Johnny and Amber” that allegedly went down in December 2015.
She said that, following dinner, Depp appeared “agitated” inside the property’s office, before Amber showed up and asked him to come back to the house. “Please come back, I’m sorry, come back,” Roberts claimed Amber pleaded.
“He stood here, reluctant to go, didn’t want to go. He left the office and got into his vehicle, started it up and Amber stood in front of the vehicle so it didn’t drive away,” she continued. “She was asking him, ‘Don’t leave, I’m sorry, come back to the house.’ After a couple minutes, she got in the vehicle and they left to go back up to the house.”
Roberts said she and a colleague decided to go to the main house to check on them and could hear “Amber yelling and Johnny answering back” from outside the building. “We stood there for a couple minutes and then you started to hear, it became audible, Amber was telling him he was a washed up actor, he was gonna die a fat, lonely old man. Then you heard Johnny say, ‘You hit me with a can,'” the manager continued.
“He came down the steps, Amber was behind him, she had a bottle in her hand,” added Roberts, saying the two were surprised to see them outside the home. She claimed Amber “started to grab at him … viciously trying to pull him back and get him back in the house,” before Roberts said she was “getting worried about what was going to happen” and decided “it was best that I remove him from the situation.” At that point, she said herself and Depp went to a cafe a few steps from the home, while Amber went back into the house itself.
Saying Depp didn’t react to Heard’s pleas at all — “he stood there with his arms by his side and he didn’t do anything” — Roberts also claimed the actor “had a mark across the bridge of his nose.” She iced it, before he went to sleep on a love seat inside the cafe.
She added that, the next morning, Heard didn’t have any visible injuries, while Depp still had a marking on his nose. After the two left the Island, they found a can of mineral spirits — which Depp claims Heard threw at his face.
During cross-examination, Heard’s attorney pointed out that Roberts wasn’t privy to everything going on between the two actors in private — including whether Depp was drinking or taking drugs, what arguments went on behind closed doors, if there was any physical abuse going on or how Depp sustained the injury to his face. She also pointed out that Roberts also didn’t know the specifics of Heard’s makeup regimen.
Heard’s attorney also asked about an alleged incident from Summer 2013, asking whether it was true she got a call that Lily-Rose and Jack Depp were “upset and wanted to leave” a yacht trip they were on and “have a helicopter take them away” with Amber. “I don’t know if Lily Rose and Jack were upset. I do know that I did arrange for transportation off the island at the time,” Roberts recalled. Roberts also confirmed that Depp “was passed out on the beach” at the time, but she had no recollection of whether Jack — who decided to stay on the boat — was “upset” at the time.
On redirect from Depp’s attorney, Roberts added that she “picked” up Depp while he was passed out on the beach. She added she “brushed him up and I left him underneath the — I believe he was on a hammock, he had fallen asleep and the hammock overturned — I brushed him off and left him underneath the lanai with Jack.”
Depp is seeking $50 million in damages after Heard claimed she was a survivor of domestic abuse in an op-ed in the Washington Post in 2018. While she didn’t name Depp in the piece, his lawyers argue it was implied to be about him and negatively affected his career. She countersued Depp for $100 million.
The actor has already lost an earlier lawsuit he took in the UK over the same article that appeared in The Sun.
The trial is expected to last six weeks. See more coverage of the ongoing trial here.
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