Unsealed Docs in Depp v. Heard Case Reveal Erectile Dysfunction Claims, Among Other Head-Turners

Over the weekend, more than 6,000 pages of court documents in the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard defamation trial were made public—thanks to the actor’s steadfast supporters—and now the masses have yet again been exposed to more information that should induce collective indigestion, but will likely just result in new and inhumane TikTok trends and Twitter threads from said supporters.

For the low price of around $3,300, it’s now public knowledge that Depp apparently suffers from erectile dysfunction, submitted nude photographs of his ex-wife into evidence, and attempted to hide a declaration that Heard never caused him “specific physical or mental injury.” And because 6,000 pages can hold quite a lot of information, such claims are only the tip of an iceberg that could bring down the Gone Girl cruise.

Long before Depp’s latest redemption tour—which has seen him play gigs across the U.K., announce a new album, create a TikTok account, become an artiste, and quietly settle another lawsuit—the pretrial court documents reveal that an abundance of damning claims were kept from the trial. Let’s start with the soft stuff, shall we? Heard’s team claimed that Depp’s issues with erectile dysfunction were relevant to the rape-with-a-liquor-bottle allegation and a contributing factor to his overall anger. As the document explains:

“Though Mr. Depp would rather not disclose his erectile dysfunction condition, such condition absolutely is relevant to sexual violence, including Mr. Depp’s anger and use of a bottle to rape Amber Heard. Mr. Depp’s erectile dysfunction makes it more probable that Mr. Depp would be angry or agitated in encounters with Amber Heard, and that he would resort to a bottle.”

A man who can’t get hard is rageful? Groundbreaking! Additionally, Depp submitted nude photographs of his ex-wife, information about his ex-wife’s and former sister-in-law’s romantic history, and Heard’s past job as an “exotic dancer” and “escort” prior to acting as evidence.

Naturally, the allegations get darker. During a pretrial deposition with Heard’s sister, Whitney Henriquez, Depp’s team suggested that Heard might’ve had something to do with the death of her childhood friend, Logan, who was killed in a car accident. According to Henriquez, his death “devastated” Heard. Even still, Depp’s attorneys pressed her on the nature of their relationship and if they’d ever fought, going so far as to insinuate that Heard had told Henriquez that she was with Logan on the day of his death and was even driving the car when he died. Henriquez emphatically denied the latter, though the lawyers continued to question her, eventually mentioning Heard’s then-suspended driver’s license. “It had nothing to do with that,” she replied.

Depp’s previous lawyer, Adam Waldman, was also accused of coercing a witness, allegedly threatening her with “negative consequences” and perjury, until she signed a pre-written declaration that she never saw any injuries on Heard. Depp’s team would go on to argue in a separate motion that Waldman’s “supposed misdeeds,” including his “Russian connections,” should be excluded from evidence, in addition to “evidence of negative social media traffic and purported Russian ‘bot’ campaign regarding Ms. Heard.” You might remember Heard first raised concerns of Russian bots back in the 2020 countersuit to Depp’s defamation suit.

Among other startling claims: Heard’s team alleged that metadata from photographs and audio submitted by Depp as evidence in the case “reveals the items were ‘modified’ days before their production in this case,” and that audio recordings submitted by Depp were impartial—often beginning and ending “in the middle of a sentence,” and modified in June 2016, nearly a year after they were created in September 2015. Heard’s team was repeatedly denied the full audio of such conversations. After reviewing the metadata, Julian Ackert, a forensic expert at iDiscovery Solutions, determined there were “anomalies that call into question the authenticity of the multimedia documents,” including “instances where the date metadata, such as creation and date metadata, is either missing or is significantly after the alleged date of the incident. Missing creation dates and/or modification dates that post-date the facts can be a sign of digital evidence manipulation.” Meanwhile, during the trial, Depp’s team repeatedly accused Heard of manipulating photographs of her own injuries and the audio of their many altercations.

Depp also allegedly fought for expert testimony from a renowned psychiatrist to be omitted from the trial. The psychiatrist concluded that Heard was “a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Mr. Depp.” It’s laid bare that Depp’s team opposed a mental examination, arguing that it wasn’t necessary for him to undergo an independent medical examination because he “is not alleging harm based on a specific physical or mental injury.” They further explained:

“Mr. Depp does not allege a specific cause of action for intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress; does not assert that Ms. Heard’s actions caused him a specific psychiatric injury; and does not claim that Ms. Heard’s actions caused him to experience unusually severe emotional distress.”

No one—apart from his fans—will forget Depp’s text messages with fellow actor and friend, Paul Bettany, which drew scrutiny during the trial. According to the documents, Depp fought to keep those exchanges from the trial, but was unsuccessful. However, even more text correspondence that wasn’t included between Depp and longtime friend Marilyn Manson are perhaps even more troubling: In a 2016 text included in the documents, Manson appears to write, “I got an amber 2.0,” and also, “Lindsay just puled an amber on me…please delete.” (“Lindsay” refers to Manson’s current wife, Lindsay Usich.) According to the documents, Depp replied, “I been reading A LOT of material on that and sociopathic behavior…it is fucking real my brother!! My ex-cunt is goddamn TEXTBOOK!!!.”

“I got a serious police amber type scenarios with L’s family. I’m fucking stressing. I don’t know if you are back but I need asylum somewhere because I think the cops might be headed my way,” Manson allegedly wrote to Depp, seeking counsel. Depp advised to “keep a distance and speak as little as possible to her.” Now that Manson is suing his ex-fiancee, Evan Rachel Wood, for defamation, it would be safe to assume Depp’s guidance didn’t stop there.

Further texts omitted from the trial proceedings see Depp and Manson discuss maintaining their own “cave” and making allusions to the film Salò, a film that’s been banned in a number of countries for its graphic depictions of youths being raped, tortured and murdered: “Let’s have our own Salo. But no gay stuff with us,” they agree. In another message, Manson tells Depp he’ll introduce him to a “new fan,” specifically noting she’s of legal age: “My new fan meet and greet girl. Looks like you need it. Trust me. I’ll send a pic. 18.”

Speaking of text messages that never saw the florescent light of the Fairfax, Virginia, courtroom: In a particularly inflammatory exchange circa 2014, Depp’s former assistant, Stephen Deuters, addressed Depp’s alleged kick to Heard aboard a private jet—an altercation that Heard mentioned during days of testimony. Deuters wrote to Heard:

He was appalled, when I told him he kicked you, he cried.”

According to records from Heard’s team, Depp later texted Heard: “Once again, I find myself in a place of shame and regret. Of course I am sorry…I will never do it again…My illness somehow crept up and grabbed me…I feel so bad for letting you down.” However, his legal team claimed they were unable to locate that text message in Depp’s iCloud account.

Finally, in direct contrast to the narratives Depp’s team repeatedly advanced about Heard, documents revealed she could’ve walked away with “tens of millions of dollars” thanks to Depp’s $33 million paycheck for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film, which was shot while they were still married and thereby deemed a “community property asset.” Notably, Heard refused, much to the apparent chagrin of her lawyers who reminded her she was entitled to half of it. Inclusion of this correspondence was rejected by the judge.

While the details of what was omitted from the trial from hell are truly troubling, the notion of Depp’s legions of lecherous fans crowdsourcing money to unseal these documents, looking for more excuses to pile on his ex-wife, and instead, revealing how tremendously twisted the man they idolize is, should offer something of a lukewarm comfort to Heard.