Amber Heard had James Franco over to her home the night before she filed for divorce from Johnny Depp.
During cross-examination on Tuesday, Heard, 36, was asked by Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez about her testimony where she addressed seeking a temporary domestic violence restraining order on May 27, 2016, so she could change the locks.
Heard had said Monday that she was “falling apart” and having difficulty sleeping because of panic attacks over Depp entering the residence she was staying. She testified that building staff would let him in even if she requested he not be allowed.
Vasquez then asked why Heard “felt comfortable having James Franco over the evening of May 22, 2016, Ms. Heard?” Heard responded, “I do not know when James came over,” to which the attorney said, “Okay, let’s remind you.” She then played elevator surveillance footage of Heard and Franco with the timestamp of May 22, 2016, at about 11 p.m. on their way up to her penthouse.
In the footage, Franco, 44, wears a hat and backpack. At one point he rests his head on Heard’s shoulder, as she appears to place her head on his. They then exit the elevator together.
Heard confirmed that it was Franco in the video and that they were going to her penthouse. “That’s where I lived, yes,” she said, adding that she is unsure what she knew of Depp’s schedule at the time, when asked if she was aware her husband would be out of town.
The actress filed for divorce from Depp the following day, May 23, 2016. (She and Depp met while making the 2011 film The Rum Diary, and later wed in 2015.)
During redirect, Heard explained about Franco, “He was my friend. And he lived next door, quite literally next door. And I, frankly, had exhausted my support network with my usual friends and was happy to welcome as much friendship at that time as I could possibly get.”
In her testimony Heard explained that she was “close” friends with Franco, whom she made two movies with. She also claimed that Depp would often get jealous and accuse her of having affairs with her costars and didn’t want her to continue acting.
Depp, 58, has testified that he thought she and Franco were having an affair.
Heard testified about the “nightmare” of arguments she and Depp would get into over Franco. She said Depp “was mad at me for taking the job with James Franco. He hated, hated James Franco and was already accusing me of kind of secretly having a thing with him in my past, since we had done Pineapple Express together.”
In December, Franco did an interview with SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Podcast, in which he addressed the multiple allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior made against him. He opened up about struggling with sex addiction and said, “I had girlfriends. I could never be faithful to anybody. I cheated on everyone before” his girlfriend Isabel Pakzad.
“I wasn’t, like, really a one-night-stand guy,” he added at the time. “Like, people that I, you know, got together with or dated, I’d see them for a long time, years. It’s just that I couldn’t be present for any of them. And the behavior spun out to a point where it was like I was hurting everybody.”
Depp is suing Heard for defamation over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post about surviving domestic violence, though she never mentioned Depp by name in the article. The Pirates of the Caribbean actor originally filed the $50 million lawsuit in March 2019. She is countersuing for $100 million, claiming Depp launched a smear campaign to ruin her reputation and painting her allegations as “fake.”
Back in November 2020, Depp lost his highly publicized U.K. libel lawsuit case against British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.” The court upheld the outlet’s claims as being “substantially true” and Heard testified to back up the claims. In March 2021, his attempt to overturn the decision was overruled.
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