Johnny Depp says he believed Amber Heard was having affair with James Franco

The third week of the defamation trial opposing Depp and Heard will resume on Monday with the former taking the witness stand for more cross-examination.

While it’s unclear who will be up to testify after Depp, here’s a look at the possibilities:

Depp and Heard are believed to have started dating that year, after Depp split from his longtime partner, French actor Vanessa Paradis. Depp and Paradis have two children: a daughter named Lily-Rose and a son named Jack.

The couple confirmed their engagement in March 2014 and tied the knot in February 2015.

By May 2016, Heard was filing for divorce.

Here’s everything you need to know about their doomed relationship:

Depp filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife Heard in March 2019, alleging that she defamed him in an op-ed she wrote in 2018 for The Washington Post.

The op-ed, which ran in December of that year, is titled: “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”

Depp isn’t mentioned by name in the op-ed, but his legal team has argued that it contains a “clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser”, which it says is “categorically and demonstrably false”.

Clémence Michallon explains:

The second week of Depp and Heard’s defamation trial brought many revelations, with many more expected to come as it continues.

Here, The Independent’s Clemence Michallon reminds what happened in week one:

Depp’s taste in tattoos was brought up during the trial when he was asked about Heard’s claims that the first time he struck her was in response to a comment about a tattoo.

The actor said that incident did not happen and reiterated that he never hit Heard or any other woman.

He added that this specific allegation never made sense to him because he would have no reason to strike a woman for making fun of his ink.

Probed further on whether Heard objected to any of his tattoos, he replied that he had “Winona forever” – a reference to his previous relationship with actor Winona Ryder – changed to “Wino forever”. It wasn’t clear which iteration Ms Heard objected to or if she influenced the change.

The Independent’s Megan Sheets reports:

One of the most shocking points in Depp’s testimony came Wednesday when he described seeing a photo of faeces on his bed days after a fight with Heard.

The actor that he didn’t see Heard between 22 April and 21 May 2016 as he had “received some news that was as absurd and grotesque and cruel, and then I was shown a picture of what the problem was”.

When Heard was out of town, Depp wanted to visit the penthouse where she was staying to collect items that were important to him, but his security guard said it wasn’t a good time.

He said he was shown a photo of “our bed and on my side of the bed was human faecal matter, so I understood why it wasn’t a good time to go down there”.

Mr Depp said his “initial response” was to “laugh”.

“It was so outside, it was so bizarre and so grotesque that I could only laugh,” he added.

The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander reports:

Depp on Wednesday likened his marriage to Heard to his fraught relationship with his mother, calling it an “endless parade of insults”.

He recalled how “demeaning name calling”, being “berated” and “made a fool of” by Ms Heard would frequently escalate into full scale arguments.

“If there’s a dialogue between two people, both people need to speak. But there was no way to fit a word in. It was a sort of rapid-fire, endless parade of insults,” he said, adding that he “was not allowed to be right and not allowed to have a voice”.

“You start to slowly realise that you are in a relationship with your mother, in a sense. And I know that sounds perverse and obtuse, but the fact is, some people search for weaknesses in people,” he said.

The Independent’s Megan Sheets reports:

Depp opened his testimony on Tuesday afternoon in Fairfax County, Virginia, by calling his ex-wife’s claims “heinous,” “disturbing” and “not based in any species of truth”.

The Hollywood veteran invoked Disney characters in explaining how the allegations have affected his career, saying: “[It’s] very strange when one day you’re Cinderella so to speak and then in 0.6 seconds you’re Quasimodo.”

The Independent’s Megan Sheets reports:

The Independent team recaps the most unmissable moments in court so far:

As Depp was cross-examined about the vodka bottle fight on Thursday, the jury was shown images of the messages and he scrawled on mirrors and furniture in blood and paint after his finger was severed.

Depp testified that he suffered a “nervous breakdown” after the injury, which caused him to “write in my own blood on the walls”.

He described the messages as “little reminders from our past that essentially represented lies that she had told me and lies that I had caught her in,” adding that he hid in a bathroom and texted his doctor to come over.

He said when the wound dried, he dipped his fingers in paint to continue writing.