Viva logo

People Need to Start Taking Johnny Depp's Allegations Against Amber Heard Seriously

Abuse has no gender

By GabiPublished 5 years ago 5 min read
1

Let’s rewind to May 2016 and the first time we opened social media and read Amber Heard’s allegations against then husband, Johnny Depp. The actress claimed that Johnny had been physically abusive toward her throughout their marriage and sported what everyone assumed to be a bruise on her right cheek, when she arrived at a Los Angeles courthouse to obtain a temporary restraining order. Are you all there? Are you remembering the anger you had towards Johnny and how badly you wanted him out of every future movie he was a part of? Good. I want you to remember that anger because it’s going to come in handy later.

This hatred towards one of Hollywood’s most beloved and celebrated actors was never-ending. Tabloids attacked him, journalists wrote vicious stories about him… and sure, this is a man who was accused of domestic violence. Why should we have sympathy for him? After all, when it comes to public opinion, everyone is guilty until proven innocent, right?

Now let’s fast forward to 2017—when Johnny Depp and Amber Heard finally settled their divorce. JUST THE DIVORCE. “But why are you typing in all caps,” you’re (maybe) asking. Well because when their divorce was settled and Amber vowed to donate ALL the money to charity, people assumed that meant Johnny Depp paid her off, just like every other celeb who has been accused of something or another, but that’s not what happened at all. Johnny and Amber didn’t have a prenuptial agreement, meaning if they were to divorce, Amber would be lawfully entitled to a financial pay out, hence the seven million dollars she ended up with.

The reality is Johnny Depp had always denied abusing her and wasn’t willing to pay her a dime for those allegations. In fact, before Amber ever went public with her claims, she sent a letter asking for money and materials or else she would sell her story, and seeing as she did go public, Depp obviously didn’t give into her demands. SEE EXTORTION LETTER BELOW:

So why were the allegations dropped? Simple, the judge dropped the case with prejudice—meaning there was not enough evidence to take it any further. The judge also took into account that Amber refused to give in original time and date stamped photographs of her alleged injuries. Oh and, Johnny Depp gave in his own evidence to court that painted a whole other picture. Evidence that, up until recently, we didn’t know what it involved. But we’ll get to that a little later.

Now after the divorce, it was assumed that everything was done and that was that, especially since they both contractually agreed to never talk about it again, right? Wrong, because Amber decided to break that deal and went forward in writing an op-ed for the Washington Post where she outlines being a victim of domestic abuse. It’s this op-ed that has earned her a $50million dollar lawsuit and February 3, 2020 court date for defamation. Now, let’s get back to that evidence Johnny gave in 2016 that no one knew about because he didn’t sell them to tabloids.

Johnny Depp was subjected to years of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of Amber Heard. These are the allegations Johnny Depp brought forward in 2016 but we the public, are only hearing about now. Defecating in beds, throwing cans of paint thinner, throwing vodka bottles and cutting the tip of his finger off, verbally tormenting him, putting out cigarette butts on his face… this and more is what Depp is claiming Heard did to him, and has the original time and date stamped photos to prove it. Along with 87 surveillance videos and 31 eye witnesses testifying to seeing her continuously abuse him. Some of which include her own makeup artist, assistant and friends. Heard had said that on December 15, 2015, Depp violently abused her and busted her lip. But the very next day she appeared on The Late Late Show looking like this:

via Late Late Show on Instagram

Her stylist for that appearance later testified:

Via queenbpip on Twitter

Remember when J.K Rowling stated that she had seen the evidence and remained true to her decision in keeping Johnny in The Fantastic Beasts franchise? Well, now we’ve seen it too so why are so many still hesitant to believe Johnny Depp was the victim? The public has been anti-Johnny Depp for four years and have used him as the butt of click bait tweets and jokes and even with all the new evidence that has come to light, people still think it’s okay to mock him for “not manning up” or just outright not believing him. But why? Is it so hard to believe that a woman could lie about being abused and make it seem like her victim was the perpetrator to save herself? We’ve all seen Gone Girl, and it’s not just fiction.

Via HouseofKiersten on Twitter

So, remember that anger we talked about earlier? The one you felt towards Johnny Depp in 2016? If you’re not feeling it against Amber Heard, I ask why? Why can you believe a man with no priors for abuse, just woke up one day and became a domestic abuser, but not a woman with a history of being violent and aggressive toward past partners? [Heard was arrested and plead guilty in 2009, for abusing her then girlfriend Tasya van Ree.]

If we want to fight for equality, we need to be more open to the fact that women CAN be just as abusive as men. We need to recognize that not all women are delicate flowers and not all men are dangerous. We need to create safe spaces for ALL victims of abuse to feel comfortable in speaking up, not just female victims. Johnny Depp lost roles because of her allegations, at the very least, shouldn't Heard lose hers as well?

It's time we actually act like "woke" individuals and start taking male victims of abuse as seriously as we do women.

For more details, documents, testimonies and information visit:

ThatBrianFella

queenbpip

HausOfKiersten

justiceforjohnnydepp

gender roles
1

About the Creator

Gabi

Always tired.

@gabelisabetta on Instagram

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

Gabi is not accepting comments at the moment

Want to show your support? Send them a one-off tip.

Find us on social media

Miscellaneous links

  • Explore
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Support

© 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.