Wednesday 18 May 2022 08:58 PM Amber Heard's sister testifies that 'bright and beautiful' Amber became ... trends now

Amber Heard's sister Whitney Henriquez took the stand Wednesday and testified that when she first met Depp around 2012 he was 'bright and beautiful and lovely and kind and generous.'

Henriquez said: 'Frankly we all fell in love with him, at first'.

She said that her sister and Depp were 'incredibly in love,' and that 'to this day I have never seen my sister fall so madly for somebody.'

But if Depp was drinking or using drugs there was 'almost always a fight.'

Henriquez said: 'It seemed to oscillate pretty quickly. He'd be sober for a bit then fall off the wagon and it would go back and forth.'

Asked to detail the change in her sister during the relationship, Henriquez said: 'At first Amber was Amber, she was loud, fun, funny, she laughed a lot, was this happy, bright, fun, loving thing surrounded by friends. A progression took over such a long period of time. It was like watching a slow motion gunshot.

'She stopped sleeping, not as loud, not as gregarious.'

Heard's weight dropped to '100lbs soaking wet' and she was 'emaciated, not sleeping, she developed a heart condition, her eyes were sunken in'.

Henriquez said that Depp became controlling over Heard's clothing and, as they had the same stylist, he was 'essentially controlling what she wore' to events.

Depp complained about Heard doing movies especially if they had sex scenes and was 'vehemently against her working at all'.

Depp on drugs was 'almost unrecognizable' from him when he was sober, Henriquez said.

He would forbid her to have a password on her phone, or force her to have a very simple one he could memorize.

Henriquez said: 'When he was drinking he'd get very angry and say really nasty unkind things, usually about Amber. Horrible, horrible, horrible things'.

When asked for example, she said: 'Pardon my language, f**king cu**, f**king used up trash bag, slimy wh**e, saggy wh**e. F**king cunt was thrown out a bunch. Horrible things like that.'

One time while riding in a car with Depp and Heard, Henriquez said that she looked around and was shocked to see him holding one of his dogs out the window.

She said: 'Johnny is holding the dog out the window. I froze, I'm scared. I knew how inebriated he was. If she (the dog) twitched she was going to go out the window.

'He brought the dog back into the car and was just laughing this really scary, loud almost like a cackle. Then he made some joke about putting her in the microwave. That was the joke, putting her in the microwave.'

Henriquez said that she was woken up at Los Angeles penthouse - she lived in the same building as Heard and Depp - one night in March 2015.

Heard said she had found some texts between Depp and another woman and said 'can you believe he's cheating on me?'

Henriquez said she went to talk to Depp who said the woman was 'meaningless' but soon began to blame Heard, who came into the room and a fight ensued.

According to Henriquez, Depp threw a can of Red Bull and hit Debbie Lloyd, his personal nurse who was in the room.

Henriquez said: 'Johnny runs up the stairs. I'm facing Amber, he comes up behind me, strikes me in the back. I hear Amber shout don't hit my f****** sister.

'She smacks him, lands one. That's when Travis (Depp's security guard) runs up the stairs

'Johnny had already grabbed Amber by the hair with one hand and was whacking her with the other'.

Depp was saying 'you f****** whores' and 'f****** c***' before going into Heard's closet which he 'completely destroyed.'

The court was shown photos of the aftermath of a March 2015 argument where Heard allegedly punched Depp,  including a clothing rack thrown down the stairs, shoe racks pushed over and broken glass in the kitchen.

Henriquez said that after that incident Depp left a non disclosure agreement on her kitchen table - an agreement not to speak publicly about what happened.

She refused to do so and soon after Depp accused her of selling stories to the media and she moved out.

Henriquez said that over dinner at her sister's 30th birthday in the penthouse, Depp shocked her closest friends with an anecdote.

She said: 'Johnny showed up very, very late and he was drunk when he showed. We all went around the table and said our favorite things about Amber, funny memories.

'For Johnny's turn he told this story about how they first met for the Rum Diary.

'This story about how she came in, sat on the couch, her perfect a** left a perfect imprint on the couch and he wouldn't let anyone sit there that day. Everyone was kind of embarrassed.'

Henriquez said that the statements by Depp's former lawyer Adam Waldman during 2020 that her claims were a 'hoax' left her 'devastated'.

She said: 'We'd just buried our mother. Amber started having panic attacks randomly, she was not sleeping. She periodically broke into tears. She was super anxious, she couldn't relax, she couldn't sit still.

'It launched her back into this space where she was so physically unwell. She cried a lot.'

Under cross examination Henriquez said she did joke with Depp about him hitting Heard but that was only because she didn't know about the physical violence by that point.

She said: 'I would never have said that knowing what I know now.'

Henriquez said that Depp and Heard had a nickname for her as she was involved in their fights so much: 'Marriage counselor.'

Heard's former best friend Rocky Pennington gave testimony via pre-taped video deposition and spoke about seeing the actress' injuries. 

Pennington was questioned on an incident in December 2015 when Heard claims that Depp headbutted her and repeatedly punched her in the head so hard that the bed frame she was lying on broke. Heard also alleged that Depp dragged her by her hair and pulled chunks out.

Pennington said that in the aftermath she saw blood in Heard's hair and a chunk of it had been 'ripped out.'

She said: 'It wasn't dripping down her head but it was raw and red.'

Asked by one of Depp's lawyers how she could tell that Heard's hair had been ripped out, Pennington gave an exasperated smile. She said: 'There was a bloody patch with hair missing.'

Pennington said that Heard's 'whole face' was red and that the upper bridge of her nose was swollen - she conceded the redness could have been from crying. Heard also had a cut to her bottom lip.

Pennington said: 'There were many times I saw injuries on her.'

The following day Heard was due to go on the James Corden TV show and Pennington said that she was there when Heard showed her injuries to her makeup artist and stylist who had to cover them up. 

Pennington rejected the idea that Heard or her makeup team could have drawn on bruises to her face.

She said: 'Because I saw injuries on her body from the time directly after they happened, the next day and as they continued to heal.'

Heard's lawyer Benjamin Rotternborn asked: 'Have you ever known Miss Heard to paint on bruises or use makeup to make it seem like she had a bruise when she didn't?'

Pennington said: 'No, the opposite. She often had to cover bruises and injuries on her face with makeup.'