Malcolm Connolly, Johnny Depp‘s bodyguard who has worked with the actor for more than 16 years, testified at court on the sixth day of the trial against The Sun.
News Group Newspapers, representing the publication as its owner, went to court last week to defend against the Pirates of the Caribbean‘s libel case for writing up a piece that accused him of being a “wife-beater” back in 2016. While Sasha Wass QC, leading the defendants, has grilled Depp about getting physically violent with his then-wife on several occasions, the actor has also brought up instances of Heard attacking him, one of which was on her 30th birthday, where the Aquaman actress defecated in her former husband’s bed the next morning.
Now, the American thespian’s bodyguard, Malcolm Connolly, who previously asserted that he never saw Depp “attack or hit” his wife, has discussed the incident in March 2015 in Australia when Depp was shooting Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Apparently, Connolly got an urgent call from the actor’s head of security, who urged him: “Malcolm, get in the car, extract the boss from the situation.”
Connolly arrived at the rented house to find the couple screaming at each other. He then took Depp out to his car, with the actor saying: “She’s cut my f—ing finger off. She’s smashed my hand with a vodka bottle.” Connolly says he saw the finger and it was a mess. The Fantastic Beasts actor also said that Heard had put out a cigarette on his face, and the mark was visible from where the bodyguard was sitting.
Heard, meanwhile, who appeared uninjured, came to the car and said something along the lines of: “Are you just going to leave it like this, you f—ing coward?”
Tara Roberts, the estate manager of Johnny Depp‘s private island, and Samantha McMillen, his stylist, both gave evidence as well, with the former alleging that Heard was “a thrower” and that she had witnessed her “lunge violently at Johnny, pull his hair, and commit other aggressive physical acts against him.”
The trial continues today and though it’s still unclear which way things will ultimately go here, as more about the couple’s relationship comes to light, we’ll be sure to keep you posted.