Johnny Depp allegedly slapped Amber Heard three times when she laughed at how he changed a tribute tattoo to ex Winona Ryder to read “Wino Forever,” a London court heard Wednesday.
Starting the second day of his explosive testimony in his libel case against The Sun, Depp, 57, was immediately accused of being a Jekyll-and-Hyde monster who turned violent during regular drink and drunk binges.
The court also heard his now-infamous texts to fellow actor Paul Bettany in which he allegedly said he wanted to “burn” and “drown” Heard — then “f–k her burnt corpse.”
The first alleged assault detailed came when Heard laughed at the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star’s tattoo, which first said “Winona Forever” until he changed it after their split in 1993.
The laughter “provoked disappointment” and “then anger” in the actor, London’s High Court was told by Sasha Wass, the lawyer for The Sun, the newspaper Depp is suing, according to DailyMail.com.
“You then, Mr Depp, slapped Ms. Heard across the face,” Wass told him in court, the outlet reported.
“You slapped her more than once, because after you slapped her the first time, she didn’t react, she just eyeballed you, she just stared at you, and that made you more angry, and you slapped her again,” Wass reportedly said.
Depp called it “patently untrue,” insisting, ‘That is not correct, it’s untrue. It didn’t happen.”
“I don’t recall any argument about any of my tattoos.”
After his attack, Depp “started crying and started apologizing” and promised never to hit her again, blaming a “sickness” within him, Wass said, according to the Evening Standard.
“You told her for the first time about the person you have been calling the ‘monster’ – your alter ego – the person who took over when you were under the influence of drink and drugs,” added Ms Wass.
The court was told he sent a text to Heard in March 2013 saying, ‘Just thought you should know, there exists a book entitled Disco Bloodbath. That is all.”
“Is it about last Friday night by any chance?” his wife asked, according to the Mail, with Depp asking her in reply how she could “make me smile about such a hideous moment.”
The message ended, “I f—ing love you, you c–t,” according to the report.
The star — who on Tuesday admitted having taken “every drug known to man” — conceded that it was “possible” he was taking cocaine in March 2013, when Heard claims the tattoo-tease attack happened.
Depp told the court that his ex-wife “never supported me in my attempt to be strong and avoid alcohol and drugs” and instead encouraged him to “fall off the wagon.”
“There were many times in our relationship, early on, where not only did she chop the cocaine with a razor blade into lines, she would then take the cocaine on her finger and rub it on her gums,” Depp said.
He was said to have been “‘drunk and having consumed a cocktail of cocaine and cannabis” before another fight, this time over Heard’s refusal to remove a painting by her ex, Tasya van Ree.
“I can be jealous,” Depp conceded in court, according to the Mail, saying they had “several arguments about Ms. van Ree.”
However, he called his ex’s claims that he hit her while trying to remove the painting to burn it “not true.”
“I did not hit Ms. Heard and furthermore I have never hit Ms. Heard,” said Depp, who wore a gray suit, blue shirt and patterned tie for his court appearance.
Depp admitted he was “definitely partaking of the cocaine” one time when friends found him and Heard after a fight when Depp was supposed to be recording a documentary with his idols, Rolling Stone’s guitarist Keith Richards and singer Tom Waits.
He said he stayed to “fix things, patch things up” with Heard — but refused to leave and was “snorting more and more lines of cocaine,” Wass said, according to the Mail.
Depp claimed Heard would chop cocaine into lines for him, which Ms Wass said never happened because Heard was ‘extremely disapproving’ of cocaine.
Depp also dismissed allegations that he dangled Heard’s Yorkshire terrier, Pistol, out a car window as “absolute, utter falsity.”
“That is not my idea of fun, although my sense of humor is rather skewed,” he said.
Wass said Depp’s texts with “A Beautiful Mind” star Bettany started because “Heard was trying to wean you off drug taking,” the Mail said.
“‘Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead,” he allegedly wrote.
Depp allegedly also told Bettany to buy Heard a pet beaver and record himself shaving the animal so that they could post a clip and call it, “Johnny Depp shaves Amber Heard’s Beaver,” the Mail said.
Depp admitted in court, “It is not a respectful way to talk about Ms Heard.”
Depp is suing The Sun over an April 2018 article that said he was a “wife beater,” which he vehemently denies — accusing his ex-wife of all the violence in their marriage.
The Sun’s defense relies on Heard’s allegations of 14 incidents of violence by Depp between 2013 and 2016.
Wass has tried to paint Depp as a volatile personality with a longstanding drug habit and an anger-management problem.
The lawyer read out an email to Depp that Heard had composed in 2013 but never sent, in which she said he was “like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and called his behavior a “full on disco blood bath.”
Depp said Heard’s claims of abuse were a “hoax” and said the email was evidence “that Ms Heard was building a dossier” as “an insurance policy for later.”
Heard is attending court and is expected to give evidence later in the trial. Depp’s exes Ryder and Vanessa Paradis, both of whom have submitted statements supporting the Hollywood star, are also expected to be called.
With Post wires