A punch, a can of Red Bull and Amber Heard‘s saliva were among the things hurled at Johnny Depp in one fight, according to his bodyguard.
As week four of the defamation trial got underway on Monday, Depp’s personal security guard Travis McGivern drew wry smiles from his client as he admitted he failed in his job by allowing him to get allegedly pummeled by his then-wife.
According to McGivern, the couple were frequently “super loving, super happy”, but the next night they could be arguing. He said that things “got a little more volatile” in March of 2016, when the pair returned from their infamous trip to Australia.
After that, he said the arguments became “pretty regular; every other night, several times a week.”
Asked what kind of names Heard called Depp, he replied “f–king deadbeat dad, f–king washed up, f–king c–t… you name it – she’s spewed it.”
McGivern said Heard also came at him occasionally, demeaning his choice of career, and calling him “a f–king yes man”; he said she also asked him how he would feel if someone else was involving themselves in his personal relationships — a point he said he sympathized with.
One argument in particular he recalled happened on March 23, 2015 at their LA penthouses; on that day, he said he received a text from Depp around 4 AM, asking him to come and bring the nurse.
McGivern said when he got there, he saw Heard in the lobby, and immediately made the decision to go up and get Depp out of the apartment before Heard returned, as she had a habit of physically preventing them from leaving arguments; But she followed him up before he could get Depp out.
He said the couple began conversing — amicably at first — while he and nurse Debbie Lloyd waited outside… but he made his way back in when things started to get heated.
McGivern claimed he saw Heard throw a can of Red Bull at Depp which hit him in the back; he stepped between them “because I didn’t want my client getting hit with anything else”. Indeed he said he managed to deflect a purse or bag Heard then threw at her husband.
The couple were shouting “a lot of verbal vitriol” at each other, and Depp “was giving as good as he got,” he said.
“At one point she spit at him,” he added.
“The F-word is my favorite word, and it was being thrown around to the point where I was uncomfortable,” McGivern testified. “He was mad, he was upset especially after she tried to spit on him.”
At some point he said Heard’s sister Whitney arrived, and the siblings left the apartment together. It was then Depp went to the top of the three-floor penthouse — the upper bedrooms of which “had been turned into closets for Ms. Heard, basically” — and “rearranged her closet for her.”
He said Depp “threw down probably every rack of clothing and shoes,” and even threw one rack down the stairs.
Hearing the commotion, he said Heard returned, and that’s when McGivern walked to Depp and told him he needed to leave immediately.
“At that point, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a fist and an arm come across my right shoulder, and I heard and saw a closed fist contact Mr. Depp in the left side of his face,” he claimed. “That was Ms. Heard’s fist. Amber Heard’s fist.”
“The initial look on his face kind of mirrored mine, kind of a look of shock,” McGivern recalled. “What just happened, where did that come from.”
“I decided I wasn’t going to let Mr. Depp get hit any more,” he said. “I told him we were leaving, it wasn’t up to him any more. Just for his safety.”
“I’d let him get hit by a Red Bull can, I’d let him get punched… my job is to ensure the safety and well-being of my clients, and I felt like I hadn’t done that. So it was my time to do my job and get him out of there.”
McGivern admitted to the court that Depp “was not pleased with me, naturally” — which drew a laugh from Depp in court.
The bodyguard said Depp pointed to the bruise on his own face and said “‘that’s your fault’ — and I agreed.”
“He had a nice little shiner,” McGivern said. “Definitely swollen and red. It wasn’t black and blue yet.”
He said that throughout the altercation, Depp did not throw anything, or physically respond at all.
Under cross-examination by Heard’s lawyer, McGivern was presented with a very different version of events — which he categorically denied.
Heard’s lawyer said Depp had tried to grab Heard’s hair and hit her with the hard cast on his hand, and that Heard had only punched Depp because he had first pushed her sister.
McGivern said none of that happened.
Also testifying on Monday was Depp’s talent manager Jack Whigham, who claimed that after Heard’s op-ed was published, “it was impossible to get him a studio film.”
He described the piece as “extremely impactful” and “catastrophic” to Depp’s career, as it was a “first-person account, not from a journalist, it was coming from someone who said ‘it happened to me.'”
As part of his testimony, he revealed some of the eye-watering salaries Depp was paid for projects while he represented the actor, including:
“City of Lies” ($8 million),”Murder on the Orient Express” ($10 million)”Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald ($13.5 million)”The Professor” ($3.5 million)”Waiting for the Barbarians” ($1 million)”Minamata” ($3 million)
The income, he claimed, dried up after the article was published.
“It was very very difficult to keep Minamata together, the financing became shaky, the budget came down, Johnny’s fee had to come down to save the movie,” he recalled.
Between December 18 2018 — the date of the publication — and October 2020, he said Depp secured exactly zero studio films.
Amid several irritated objections from the opposing lawyers, Whigham insisted the op-ed was what cost Depp the sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film, and why Disney were considering bringing in Margot Robbie to steer the franchise instead.
Whigham claimed he reached out to producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Sean Bailey several times, but ultimately “was not successful in rescuing Pirates for Johnny.”
As part of his testimony, Whigham insisted he never saw Depp lose his temper, raise his voice, or engage in any violence.
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. See all of our ongoing coverage here.
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