Johnny Depp used a tampon applicator to snort cocaine, Amber Heard’s sister reveals

Johnny Depp used a tampon applicator to snort cocaine, Amber Heard’s sister claimed today, as she took to the stand in the actor’s bombshell libel trial.  

Whitney Henriquez denied setting up a photograph showing the applicator alongside a pint of whisky, four lines of cocaine and Depp’s skull and crossbones ‘pill box’ at the High Court in London

The actor’s ex-wife Heard, 34, took the snapshot at her LA home in 2013 before the couple allegedly had a blazing row about his drug and alcohol use.

The image also featured Depp’s credit card and a Keith Richards CD, and was taken on the afternoon the actor was supposed to be filming a documentary on the Rolling Stones legend. 

Ms Henriquez was today asked what the tampon applicator would be used for, and replied: ‘To get the coke in your nose.’   

Eleanor Laws QC, representing Depp, said: ‘That is what you use to snort cocaine, isn’t it?’ Ms Henriquez said: ‘When I did cocaine, yes.’  

The barrister said: ‘I would suggest that this photograph is some sort of set up, isn’t it?’ Ms Henriquez replied: ‘It is not.’ 

Whitney Henriquez denied setting up a photograph showing the applicator alongside a pint of whisky, four lines of cocaine and Depp’s skull and crossbones ‘pill box’ at the High Court in London

Ms Laws then asked Ms Henriquez about a text message she sent to Depp, accompanied by a photograph of cocaine and a tampon applicator, and Ms Henriquez said: ‘I had given him a tampon applicator and he was quite fond of that trick.’

The barrister read out the text, in which Ms Henriquez said: ‘Holy S***, this strange stuff came into my possession at work today and I have no clue what it is, maybe I should smell it (to) figure it out.’

Ms Henriquez confirmed this was a joke, following which Ms Laws suggested again that the cocaine photograph referred to in court was a set up.

The hotel banquet manager said she disagreed and confirmed she stuck to her previous account.    

Ms Henriquez today passionately backed her sibling on the stand at the High Court in Depp’s libel trial against The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers. 

Depp, 57,  is suing NGN over an article in April 2018 which labelled him a ‘wife beater.’  

The publisher is defending the article as true, claiming Depp was ‘controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs’.  

Johnny Depp arrives to attend his libel trial against News Group Newspapers at the High Court in London this afternoon

Johnny Depp arrives to attend his libel trial against News Group Newspapers at the High Court in London this afternoon

Heard, pictured arriving at the court in London today

Heard, pictured today, will conclude her evidence about 14 allegations of domestic violence

Heard, pictured arriving at the High Court in London, today concluded her evidence about 14 allegations of domestic violence

Ms Henriquez today said she witnessed the so-called ‘stairs incident’ in March 2015 and described how a drunken Depp nearly pushed her down the stairs at the couple’s penthouse apartment in Los Angeles when she intervened in an argument.    

Heard’s sister claimed he struck her on the arm while at the top of a staircase, causing the actress to say ‘don’t hit my sister’ and hit him back. 

She said Depp then ‘really went for Amber’, adding that she was ‘standing right there next to them when Johnny grabbed her by the hair with one hand and I saw him punch her really hard in the head’. 

In a wide-ranging testimony, the sister said Depp would insult Heard and say he loved her in the same sentence ‘with equal amounts of passion’, telling her: ‘F***ing ugly c**t, you fat w***e… but God I f***ing love you’.

Ms Henriquez (pictured) today passionately backed her sibling on the stand at the High Court in Depp's libel trial against The Sun's publisher News Group Newspapers

Ms Henriquez (pictured) today passionately backed her sibling on the stand at the High Court in Depp’s libel trial against The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers

The hotel banquet manager was living with the couple in Los Angeles in March 2013 when Depp began arguing with Heard after the actress claimed he had been cheating on her with a woman called Rochelle Hathaway.

She claimed that Depp was drinking whisky in the kitchen with an almost empty bottle in one hand, even though his ‘sobriety nurse’ Debbie Lloyd was also there, and he was swearing about Heard but ‘not making much sense’.

Heard came in and was on the mezzanine level allegedly screaming ‘f*** you’ at him while Depp was on the ground floor, also screaming verbal abuse, saying she was a ‘w***e’ and ‘an ugly old c**t’, according to Ms Henriquez.

How Amber Heard’s sister lived with the couple and Johnny Depp said he would ‘take care of her and her parents’

Amber Heard’s sister Whitney Henriquez previously lived in one of five penthouses owned by Depp in the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles.

In a written witness statement in Depp’s libel case against The Sun, Ms Henriquez said when she first met the Pirates Of The Caribbean star, he seemed ‘very sweet’ and she was ‘surprised how much I liked him’.

The pair became close, ‘like brother and sister’, she claimed, with Mr Dep calling her ‘sis’. But Ms Henriquez also said her sister’s relationship with the actor was ‘tumultuous from the start’.

While living with the couple between 2014 and 2015, Ms Henriquez said Depp did not like Heard working and ‘this got worse the longer they were together’. She added: ‘They would both tell me about fights which started about her taking film roles.’

On one occasion Ms Henriquez spoke to Depp about this and he allegedly replied: ‘I don’t know why she even has to work. I’ll take care of her, I’ll take care of you and your parents.’

She told the High Court that she remembered thinking ‘how crazy it was that he was offering to pay for all of us just so he could get her to stop working’, adding: ‘I also remember talking to them both about a fight they had about the fact she wouldn’t take the credit card he wanted to give her.’

He is said to have explained that he wanted ‘to look after my girl’, but she wanted to keep working and pay her own way. Ms Henriquez said: ‘Amber is really independent and proud about it.’

Depp was also said to have been ‘incredibly jealous and possessive and was threatened by her former partners and co-stars, both men and women’.

Ms Henriquez said she was with the couple in Brazil in September 2015 when they had a ‘huge fight’ because she and Heard were leaving early so she could do a screen test for Aquaman.

She added: ‘I remember his assistant, Nathan Holmes, and I joking about the fact we hoped she didn’t get the role because Johnny would go crazy when he saw a picture of Jason Momoa, her co-star. But there are many examples of this. Many of their fights stemmed from his jealousy.’

 

Ms Henriquez said that she then went upstairs to try to calm Heard down, while Depp was still on the ground floor with both of his security guards and threw a Red Bull can at the sisters, which hit Ms Lloyd. 

He allegedly shouted ‘f*** you b****es, you c***s’ and then started coming up the stairs towards them while yelling.

Ms Henriquez said: ‘He came up the stairs from the kitchen to the mezzanine level. I was on the top of the stairs at the mezzanine level and I stood with my back to the stairs, facing Amber but between them. I remember being worried that I was near the edge of the top of the stairs. 

‘When he got to the top of the stairs, he was pulling me backwards so he could get to Amber. I remember being scared because I was worried that I would fall backwards and fall down the stairs. Johnny reached out to shove me out of the way to lunge at Amber – reaching out to try hit Amber – and instead struck me, hitting me in the arm.

‘Amber suddenly lurched forward and hit him and said, ‘don’t hit my sister’. I didn’t see exactly how Amber hit him but it didn’t seem especially hard; it was just enough for him to lose momentum. She was just trying to protect me and I think it probably stopped me from being pushed down the stairs. 

‘There was a struggle with me stuck in the middle of it, and he really went for Amber. Somehow I was pushed out of the way so I wasn’t between them, but I was standing right there next to them when Johnny grabbed her by the hair with one hand and I saw him punch her really hard in the head with his other hand multiple times.

‘I was trying to push my way in between them to stop Johnny from hitting Amber when Travis, Johnny’s security guard, stepped in to pull them apart. The security guards had been at bottom of the staircase; only then they intervened. We were separated and I immediately took Amber back into my apartment to make sure she was OK.’

She said she could hear ‘someone breaking and smashing things, and Johnny screaming ‘f***ing c**t’, ‘you f***ing w***e, I hate you’.’ The next morning Ms Henriquez returned to the apartment and saw the ‘place had been ransacked; shelves had been ripped off the wall and racks of Amber’s clothes had been pulled over’.

She added: ‘Things were taken out of boxes and thrown around all over the place. I took photos of the damage and had a text message exchange with Kevin Murphy, the estate manager. It was Kevin’s job to repair that sort of thing. By the afternoon, it was cleaned up as if nothing had happened.’

Heard has accused Depp of both verbal and physical abuse throughout their relationship – allegedly punching, slapping, kicking, headbutting and choking her, as well as displaying ‘extremely controlling and intimidating behaviour’.

However, Depp says he was not violent towards Heard, claiming it was she who was violent to him.   

The actor is suing NGN over the publication of an article in April 2018. His lawyers say the article bore the meaning there was ‘overwhelming evidence’ Depp assaulted Heard on a number of occasions and left her ‘in fear for her life’.

NGN is defending the article as true, and says Mr Depp was ‘controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Ms Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs’.

The case continues.