Amber Heard has admitted in court that she attacked Johnny Depp because she wanted to protect her younger sister.
The Aquaman star testified at Virginia's Fairfax County Court about an alleged fight she had with her then-husband.
She said she got into an argument with Depp in their Los Angeles penthouse after she accused him of cheating on her with a woman that he dated years earlier.
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"I immediately, like, confronted him about it," the 36-year-old said. "I was...I didn't care in that moment if he did kill me."
Heard explained how Depp became furious by the accusation.
She yelled back at him during the row and then left the property to visit the neighbouring penthouse, which Depp owned, to visit her sister, who had been staying there.
Depp allegedly followed her and Heard alleged Whitney got between them during this fight.
She said she was worried her sister might fall down the stairs, but she leapt into action when he took a swing at her.
"I just remember this brief struggle we had. Whitney, my sister, all of a sudden put herself in between," Heard told the court.
"And I swung at him.
"In all my relationship to date with Johnny, I hadn't landed a blow...for the first time I hit him, like actually hit him square in the face.
"But he didn't push my sister down the stairs.
"Johnny kind of looked stunned, and then laughed at me. And then he hit me again."
According to NBC, Heard admitted to fighting back against Depp during previous fights, but she never 'landed anything'.
Heard has been caught on tape admitting to hitting Depp and that recording was played earlier in the defamation trial.
In the recording, she said: "I didn't punch you, by the way... I was hitting you, I wasn't punching you.
"You didn't get punched. You got hit... but I did not punch you. I did not f*****g deck you. I f**king was hitting you. I don't know what the actual motion of my hand was, but you're fine. I did not hurt you, I did not punch you, I was hitting you.
"I'm not sitting here bitching about it, am I? That's the difference between me and you, you're a f*****g baby. You are such a baby, grow the f**k up Johnny."
Heard then says she 'did start a physical fight', and Depp says he had to 'get the f**k out of there'.
She continues: "You did the right thing, the big thing. You know what, you are admirable."
Commenting on the recording, Depp said it reflected Heard's 'need for a fight', and that it was 'the sound that I'd gotten very used to... the squabbling, the raising of the voice'.
The defamation case was brought on by Depp after a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which Heard claimed she had become 'a public figure representing domestic abuse'.
Depp's legal team has argued the 'clear implication' was that the Pirates of the Caribbean star was an abuser.
Topics: Johnny Depp, Celebrity
Stewart Perrie