Celebrity News June 06, 2022
Amber Heard’s Sister Speaks Out After Johnny Depp Trial
Amber Heard’s sister Whitney Henriquez is speaking out following the Johnny Depp trial.
Depp was suing Heard for defamation and $50 million. She was countersuing him for $100 million.
The jury found in favor of Depp, agreeing that it was defamation when Heard claimed she was a domestic abuse survivor in a 2018 op-ed. He was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The judge immediately reduced the $5 million figure to $350,000, in line with a Virginia statutory cap.
Amber also had a partial win in her countersuit, as the jury awarded her $2 million in compensatory damages for a statement made by one of Depp’s lawyers.
Whitney, who testified on Amber’s behalf, took to Instagram to support her sister, using an image with the hashtag #istandwithamberheard.
Henriquez wrote, “I still stand with you, sissy. Yesterday, today and tomorrow I will always be proud of you for standing up for yourself, for testifying both here in Virginia and in the UK, and for being the voice of so many who can’t speak to the things that happen behind closed doors. We knew that this was going to be an uphill battle and that the cards were stacked against us. But you stood up and spoke out regardless.”
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She continued, “I am so honored to testify for you, and I would do it a million times over because I know what I saw and because the truth is forever on your side. I’m so sorry that it wasn’t reflected in the decision made by this jury, but I will never give up on you, and neither will anyone who stands with you. Forever by your side… #istandwithamberheard.”
During Henriquez’s testimony, she answered questions about a 2015 incident in which Depp allegedly attacked her and Amber.
Whitney claimed Amber and Johnny got into an argument after Amber saw some text messages and confronted him about an alleged affair.
She told the courtroom, “I’m at the top of the stairs with my back to the stairs, and that’s when 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**king sister!’ She smacks him, lands one. At that point, that’s when [Depp’s security guard] Travis [McGivern] runs up the stairs, after Amber landed one.”
Whitney testified, “But by that time, Johnny had already grabbed Amber by the hair with one hand and was whacking her repeatedly in the face with the other as I was standing there. Travis then pulls them apart.”
According to Henriquez, she was asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement after the incident.
She testified, “There was an NDA on my kitchen table... My understanding is it’s a contract to keep things private. To keep your mouth shut, essentially. I was asked to sign one. I don’t believe I signed it. I left sometime after.”
McGivern gave a completely different account of what went down on the staircase. He testified that Heard threw a Red Bull can at Depp and even “tried to spit” on her husband, who became “angry and agitated.”
He claimed, “Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a fist and an arm come across my right shoulder and I heard and saw a closed fist contact Mr. Depp in the left side of his face. That was Ms. Heard’s fist. The initial look on his face kind of mirrored mine, kind of a look of shock. Like, ‘What just happened? Where did that come from?’ At that point, I wasn’t gonna let Mr. Depp get hit anymore, so I moved him down the last flight of stairs to the lower level and told him, ‘We are leaving.’ It wasn’t up to him anymore. Just for his safety.”
Heard admitted that she “swung at” Depp to prevent him from “push[ing] my sister down the stairs.” She argued, “In all of my relationship to date with Johnny, I hadn’t landed a blow. And I, for the first time, hit him — like, actually hit him. Square in the face.”
Johnny has vehemently denied striking Heard or any other woman.
During a recent interview with “Today,” Amber’s lawyer Elaine Charlson Bredehoft said her client will “absolutely” appeal the case, saying, “She has some excellent grounds for it.”