Depp's Lawyers Defend Him Calling Amber Heard 'Whore' in Unsealed Docs

Johnny Depp's legal defense of calling ex-wife Amber Heard a "whore" has been made public thanks to newly-unsealed unsealed court documents.

Information from the 2022 defamation suit involving Depp and Heard continues to filter through after the recent release of thousands of documents.

Following a high-profile trial in Fairfax, Virginia, the jury returned a verdict on June 1 ruling that Heard had defamed Depp and awarded him over $10 million in damages as well as $5 million in punitive damages, which was later reduced to $350,000 due to a Virginia law capping such awards. Depp was ordered to pay $2 million to Heard—who had countersued for $100 million—for defaming her via comments made by his attorney Adam Waldman.

The 6,000 newly-released documents contain previously protected information relating to the recent trial, including Depp's defense as to why he called Heard a "whore" in text messages, and how his team justified not including it as part of the initial trial.

Depp's attorney Benjamin Chew, addressed several text messages sent by Depp referring to Heard as a "whore" between August 2016 and April 2019.

"Mr. Depp's statements, after Ms. Heard falsely and publicly accused him of domestic abuse, for instance, calling Ms. Heard a 'whore,' 'begging for total global humiliation,' does not make it more or less probable that he physically abused her during their marriage," Chew wrote in a document signed on March 22, weeks before the trial began on April 11. "It just shows he was angry, as anyone publicly accused of domestic violence would be."

Chew also explained why Depp's reference to his ex-wife as a "whore" in text messages was irrelevant to the case, and shouldn't count as admissible evidence for Heard's case.

"While the probative value of Mr. Depp's post-allegations statements concerning Ms. Heard is of negligible, if any, probative value to the defamation claims in this case, the risk of undue prejudice to Mr. Depp if the jury is permitted to see these text messages - which will almost certainly feature in Ms. Heard's opening statements - is quite high," Chew wrote. "Jurors may, understandably, be offended by the crude and obscene nature of some of Mr. Depp's comments concerning his ex (or soon-to-be-ex) wife and come to perceive Mr. Depp in a more negative light due to the fact that Mr. Depp used some colorful language to express his disgust at Ms. Heard's conduct."

"This potential, and indeed likely, visceral reaction for some jurors raises an undue risk that such jurors will be distracted from the task at hand - evaluating the evidence (or lack thereof) of physical abuse by Mr. Depp - and adjudge Mr. Depp a 'wifebeater' based simply on his words," Chew wrote, adding that the evidence of the text messages should be ruled "inadmissible, as the potential for undue prejudice from admitting these exhibits far exceeds their probative value."

Newsweek has reached out to both Depp and Heard's representatives for further comment.