The media can be a very twisted place. Rather than explaining all sides to a story, the media chooses the side that they think will make them the most money. In the case of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s abuse case, the media has chosen to take Amber’s side. The abuse case verdict stated that Johnny Depp had physically assaulted Amber Heard upwards of 12 times on different occasions. This verdict led the media to only shine a light on the alleged things Johnny did to Amber, not what Amber did to Johnny. After reading the case file relating to the things Johnny said Amber had done to him, it makes me wish the media expressed this to their audiences as well. Everyone should be able to see the sides of the story no matter the ending verdict, which stated that Depp in fact abused Heard on 12 out of 14 different occasions. Incident reports from Johnny and the abuse he endured start as early as 2013. The entire 45-page case file is very important to read, however, I chose to explain and report on a few incidents that specifically stood out to me in this trial.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard had a relationship that lasted a few years, only being married for 15 months before Johnny filed for divorce. Heard came out in a news press article shortly after Johnny had filed, explaining that Depp had physically, emotionally, and verbally abused her. This spread like wildfire in the media. The liberal case against The Sun newspaper began in December of 2019. One of the first incidents described in the case explains that Amber stated Johnny was on drugs, when in reality it was the other way around, “It was not uncommon for her to have two bottles of wine in a space of just over an hour. She never supported me in my attempts to be strong and to avoid alcohol and drugs” (8). Despite Depp’s countless efforts to go to rehab to stop his addiction, Heard would still try and provoke him. Johnny states that “Many times she placed a whiskey shot in front of me before bed asking me to drink it” (8). This was never mentioned by Heard, in her press release with the Sun Newspaper. Depp is able to explain his side of things with this case because the world has only seen Heard’s side. She was expressed to be an alcoholic and a drug addict in this case, whereas Depp would try to clean himself up. During this time period around 2013, it was stated that Depp had slapped Heard across the face over a remark she made about his tattoo. Heard mentioned this incident in her Sun article. Regarding this incident, Depp stated, “I do not recall having any conversation about a tattoo around this time and I did not slap Ms Heard then or at any point in time” (9). In this trial, Depp goes against the claims Heard had made in her press release. Depp continues on to express he never physically abused Heard on any incident.
One incident that was described by Depp, resulting in injury, had photo evidence presented. He expressed to the court that Ms.Heard was angered by the fact that Johnny has poured himself a glass of Vodka. She was so infuriated that she attempted to throw a, .75 cl vodka bottle at Depp’s head. Instead, she missed and tried with another bottle which hit his hand. With this action, the top of his finger was practically severed off. This incident was never expressed by the sun newspaper, in relation to Depp’s side of it. The media is very one-sided, especially when it benefits their outlet.
It is important to shed light on relationship abuse from all sides. It is not a matter of who did more, or who is more guilty, it is a matter of what each person did in general that was abusive. In this case, we already know Heard’s side, what we did know was that she would abuse Johnny just the same.
“Black Mass 11” by GabboT is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0