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WASHINGTON - Actor Johnny Depp testified on Wednesday at his defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard that it has been "unimaginably brutal" to listen to her "heinous" accusations of domestic abuse.
"No human being is perfect, certainly not, none of us, but I have never in my life committed sexual battery, physical abuse," the 58-year-old Depp said.
Taking the witness stand as the six-week-long trial in Fairfax, near the US capital, nears an end, Depp was asked by his lawyers what it has been like to listen to Heard's testimony.
"It's insane to hear heinous accusations of violence, sexual violence, that she's attributed to me," the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star said. "All these outlandish, outrageous stories of me committing these things.
"Horrible, ridiculous, humiliating, ludicrous, painful, savage, unimaginably brutal, cruel and all false," he told the seven-person jury.
"All false." Depp said he brought legal action because he needed to address "what I've been carrying on my back, reluctantly, for six years."
The 36-year-old Heard, who was married to Depp from 2015 to 2017, obtained a restraining order against her then-husband in May 2016, citing domestic violence.
Depp, a three-time Oscar nominee, filed a libel suit in London against British tabloid The Sun for calling him a "wife-beater." He lost that case in November 2020.
Depp brought suit against Heard in Fairfax over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse."
The Texas-born Heard did not name Depp in the piece, but he sued her for implying that he was a domestic abuser and is seeking $50 million in damages.
Heard, who had a starring role in "Aquaman," countersued, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered "rampant physical violence and abuse."