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A longtime employee ofJohnny Depp’s saysAmber Heardonce told him that defecating in the former couple’s once-shared bed was “a horrible practical joke gone wrong.”
Starling Jenkins III — an executive chauffer and security guard for Depp who first met the actor in 1993, and has since provided services ranging from childcare, animal care and personal-assistant duties to security and transportation — testified in court Thursday as Depp, 58, and Heard, 36, continue to face off inthe defamation trialthat kicked off April 11.
Speaking from a live video call to the court in Fairfax, Virginia, Jenkins recalled accompanying theAquamanactress toCoachellain 2016. While driving Heard to the festival one night, Jenkins says they “had a conversation pertaining to the surprise she left in the boss’s bed” following a fight she and Depp allegedly had before she departed for the trip with friends.
Clarifying that the “surprise” was “the defecation,” Jenkins testified that Heard told him it was “a horrible practical joke gone wrong.”
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On the stand Wednesday, Depp said he was “shown a picture of” the bed incident, which allegedly took place after he and his then-wife had an argument during her 30th birthday party, before she headed to Coachella.
“I had gone to Mr. [security guard Sean] Bett and said, ‘She’s at Coachella. I think it’s a good time to go downtown so that I can get some of my things and get them out of there,’ especially things that were precious to me,” theEdward Scissorhandsstar recalled. “And he said, ‘I don’t think now’s a good time to go.’ And I thought, ‘It’s the perfect time. She’s not going to be home for two days.’ "
“Then he showed me a photograph on his telephone of … it was a photograph of our bed, and on my side of the bed, was human fecal matter,” Depp testified.
The actor said of his initial response, “I mean … I laughed. It was so outside. It was so bizarre and so grotesque that I could only laugh. So I did not go down there that day.”
According to Depp, Heard “tried to blame” the feces “onthe dogs,“adding, “They’re teacup Yorkies. They weigh about 4 pounds each. The photograph that I saw — I lived with those dogs for many years. It was not the dogs.”
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Heard and Depp met while making 2011’sThe Rum Diaryand laterwed in February 2015. Theybroke up in May 2016, when Heard soughta domestic violence restraining orderagainst Depp, accusing him of abusing her.
Depp denied the claims, andthey settled their divorceout of court in August 2016 (it was finalized in January 2017).
Back in November 2020, Depplost his highly publicized U.K. libel lawsuit caseagainst British tabloidThe Sunfor 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, Depp’s attempt tooverturn the decision was overruled.
source: people.com
