Recoding Reveals Questionable Reasons For Domestic Abuse Allegations
WARNING: article details violence and the use of expletives
This article is looking at the 2nd Depp/Heard audio, which was released within days of the first, (in itself pretty shocking). This recording however, reveals a somewhat more disturbing scenario. If you haven't yet, do read my previous piece which analyses the first recording and provides further context to what’s being analysed here.
The presumption is that Depp recorded the audio without Heard’s knowledge. This would have been a sensible precaution on his part and likely down to legal advice, since the restraining order was in place and Amber was choosing to circumnavigate this inconvenient injunction that she'd requested.
Yes, that’s right! She took out the RO and then got around it (seemingly via her mother), so she could speak to him. Is this the behaviour of a battered victim who fears for her life?
The exchange is quite complex and centres around events in May 2016, so in order to understand the context and direction it’s heading in, I will provide some background information, including this critical timeline for clarification.
These details were widely known and reported back in 2016 …
And of course …
Let’s be reminded of certain domestic abuse behaviours…
… and in part 1 I highlighted Depp’s mother’s passing. Let’s look at it again. and revisit his lawyer’s statement…
So why is all of this important? Let’s dig in to the audio:
In this first extract, Heard is berating Depp for filing a response to her initial divorce filing. She’s intimating that if he’d just left well alone, things would have stayed private and easier on the both of them.
But hold on! Why would a person NOT file a response? This is particularly relevant in cases where there’s a lot at stake, for example, where very high net worth is involved. In fact, it would have been a pretty poor decision on his part not to.
Extract: Michigan Legal Help
Also, an important thing to note here: once he files, there’s no going back for her! So for him to make the decision to respond and file, it means he’s ready to divorce; he wants out! In part 1, the audio was all about her abject fear of him ‘splitting’ because it meant he’d taken back control of his life. So this decision would mean he is indeed splitting and this time it’s for good!
Already we have gaslighting and the “we” “you” tactics being used in her opening gambit:
“And so I text you this, and I guess you don’t remember… “So we said we can do this privately…and I said unless you file…and you don’t have to file…I was trying to explain to you and I remember you not understanding this.”
She’s talking to a grown man as if he needs spoon feeding this information because, what, he’s somehow not capable of understanding the implications of his actions? She’s babying him whilst handing him the blame for whatever ‘fuck up’ that’s happened. The next part speaks for itself:
She’s closing him down! He’s sought legal advice (from a top divorce lawyer) and made decisions on the back of that independently and therefore he’s gone against her instructions.
What?? How dare he!!
Bearing in mind this is after she took out a restraining order, so they shouldn’t be discussing anything!
And then because he tries to clarify his position …
“You’re trying to … I feel like you’re trying to defend yourself …”
Of course he’s trying to defend himself! Yet this is somehow twisted in to him doing something wrong, and he’s doing it to them both, he’s hurting them both.
This is manipulation right here folks!
I would be so bold as to suggest this is all about him ‘splitting.’ As long as only she filed, she had control! She could retract it … or not. Anything that looked bad for her? She could blame her legal team. This is something she alluded to in a surprisingly affectionate final text message to him. Again, this just isn’t how a survivor of serious abuse would behave towards their abuser:
‘Do this or undo this as we see fit. You and I have the control. And love each other. ‘I thought you filed. You said you were going to and said goodbye. I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you. I have nothing but love for you.’
Let’s move on! So what is this ‘fuck up’ she’s referring to?
What is this terrible thing that’s been picked up by TMZ…?
The conversation carries on along this trajectory …
and then …
So what’s going on here? Anyone remember the TMZ video of Depp kicking off in his kitchen, the one that started this wrecking ball rolling and which she claims she never leaked? The whole exchange up to this point is her trying to convince him of that. Not only that but somehow it was his team’s doing. Why on earth would he or his team release that video?
But what’s also really interesting here is her next response. If the video had indeed shown him being physically violent towards her (it didn’t, but it’s amazing how many people think it did), her response would have surely been an affirmation of this rather critical incident, something like “but you did do that to me!”. But no!
Not only does she not make any reference to the supposed beating, she’s passing the buck because, as she points out, it’s now out of her hands. By feigning ignorance and a level of powerlessness, she abdicates any responsibility for how things are going to proceed.
He’s right; she is all about protecting her own interests…
Again, she’s feigning powerlessness here; that she’s had no hand in the terrible situation unfolding. She’s also claiming that she’s not a gold digger and it’s not about the money (remember those demands?). This is all alluding to the bad press she was receiving at the time.
But is she really claiming that her hand was forced by his lawyer into making the accusations? Yes! And all because she’d get evicted from Depp’s rather fabulous penthouse apartments in LA under standard divorce proceedings?
Wow!
For those not in the know, Rock and Josh are a couple of Heard’s cabal of friends that mooched off Depp, living in the penthouses rent free and returned him the favour by backing up her accusations (bar Josh who’s stayed silent).
I wonder why …?
She’s also put herself, ironically, into a position of power by playing the victim card; how powerless she is against the evil legals. That whatever awfulness is now occurring can’t possibly be down to her, because she really only has his interests at heart.
My brain hurts!
Then, unfortunately for Depp, he thinks he gets his time to say what he really feels should happen, only to discover when his phone rings again that she’d been cut off and that he’d been talking to himself.
They pick up the conversation again…
This is interesting because what he suggests; writing a letter, a mutual statement; she must have agreed to down the line because that’s precisely what happened in August 2016. And this statement is very important. It came as they reached an out of court settlement and then Heard withdrew her allegations of abuse and her request for a permanent restraining order.
The statement as issued by her lawyer:
“Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love.”
“Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm.”
“Amber wishes the best for Johnny in the future. Amber will be donating financial proceeds from the divorce to a charity. There will be no further public statements about this matter.”
So that should have been the end of it! She withdrew her allegations because her evidence was inadmissible and the case was dismissed WITH prejudice. This would null any attempt at getting a permanent RO and why would she need it anyhow? Depp was hardly chasing her up and down the country, or stalking her, you know, like people who actually warrant such measures.
So what happened? Was she really content to leave it at that and move on?Of course not! Heard might have lost this battle but she was yet to win the war, with what can only be described as a chilling plan …
At this point he hasn’t clicked but why would he?
I had to put all of this on here because, well, it’s just so shocking!
There are those who seriously believe that she’s describing an honest timeline here. How they can think this is just inconceivable! A real victim would be describing the injuries they suffered and how they ended up fleeing or hospitalised, whatever! They would NOT be running off a ‘Gone Girl’ script, detailing a carefully thought out premeditated hoax. This is insane!
Also in terms of abuse … how abusive is that, to tell your victim exactly how you can set him up to be the fall guy, the bad guy, the monster, because you’ve been stashing ‘evidence’ for three years?
Wow!
In part one I touched on the James Cordon show and that I’d revisit in part 2 … well, there it is, right there! She set up the phone call with her manager Jodi to ‘corroborate’ some sort of altercation with Depp the night before. It’s just unfortunate there were no injuries. Yet her dear lovelorn friend IO Tillet believed it and even commented on it in his piece written for Refinery 29.
Heard then talks about how it would be a criminal case because she’d have to file a police report; she didn’t. Why is that? Well, the educated belief is that if she had and it was proven she’d lied or fabricated the incident, she’d be open to prosecution. That was not something to risk!
Heard also claims that a prosecutor and lawyer stated that this was ‘the most solid … case of domestic violence we’ve ever seen!’ Really??
And even after all this, he’s still trying to fix things and resolve the unresolvable …
Only for her to go full circle and bring it back round to … her reputation!
Wait, so when he asks her why she put the ‘abuse thing’ out there into the public domain, she didn’t respond by saying, “because you abused me”, she references her credibility again! And to deflect from her responsibility yet again, she blames him and his team for ‘forcing’ her to do it!
Wow!
Then they talk about the incident where she claims he attacked her and threw a phone in her face, causing the famous bruising the day she went to court for the RO.
Not only did IO call the cops on her instructions, he wrote about it in his piece written for Refinery 29. So for an incident that she was so good at recalling during her deposition down the line, Heard sure is fuzzy about the facts!
What the …!!??
Firstly, she is claiming she feared for her life but that it would be have been by accident! Not because of any deliberate attack. Secondly, it was the first time she’d felt unsafe. She claimed to have been abused by him throughout their relationship and was in danger every time he ‘blew a fuse’ and beat her. There are explicit descriptions of violent incidents leaving her battered and bruised. Yet this was the first time she feared for her life!
But it gets worse! He talks about an incident that really was life threatening and he ended up hospitalised. What does she do? She mocks him and diminishes him by saying nobody would believe him. And she was goddam right!
Domestic abuse behaviours…
It gets worse still! Just as she did in the last audio, Heard dismisses her violent actions, has issues with veracity and goes full on delusional about victimhood.
If you listen to the audio when Depp exclaims ‘oh my God’ you can hear it in his voice, the profound and depressing realisation that she’s completely disengaged from reality. She then goes on to accuse Depp’s staff of lying about the violence and abuse and how will they be able to lie under oath. He points out to her, because he’s realised she’s just going to keep on the narrative:
She doesn’t answer him with a no! She deflects again by using her size as a reason that she couldn’t physically abuse him, which is nonsense. Besides, she uses large weapons to hit him with as clearly heard the 1st audio.
She mocks him again about being a ‘victim’ of abuse, implying weakness, humiliating a man into thinking a. his injuries aren’t serious and b. he won’t be believed. This is a very common scenario for male victims of abuse.
The situation escalates and it becomes a tit for tat argument in which she states she has all this evidence, that his people lied, but then returns back to blaming his people for the TMZ leak.
This is all about her redeeming herself in the eyes of the public, because somehow, at this stage, that matters more than anything. She refers to Depp’s feelings and alludes to caring about them, but it feels like, as is classic with narcissists, she’s merely playing out a role. This is poignantly touched on by Depp; he no longer recognises the person he married …
Then, he finally loses it and gives it out:
He’s so incensed at the level of accusation being railed against him and her persistent reactionary claim of self defence is frankly bizarre. I guess setting someone up to take the wrap for something they didn’t do could be construed as a form of self defence.
And then he leaves the room!
It reminds me of something touched upon in part 1: The practice of leaving an escalating situation in order to prevent anything further from happening. The same behaviour that she perceived as him ‘splitting’.
Again, I am not claiming that he never touched her. There were clearly a lot of fights; these sort of relationships are driven by conflict and both parties end up in the fray.
But …
Mutual abuse is a muddy area, is very rare and in this case, the behaviours and power play point to her as abusive and coercive! She instigated the fights, she exhibited all the classic traits. She was controlling, manipulative and persistent in making everything about her. These are classic signs of BPD and NPD and as I said in part 1, I’m not qualified to diagnose her but whatever you want to call her behaviour, it’s definitely not that of a victim, especially the kind of victim she claimed to be.
Heard’s desire to maintain her reputation at all costs and make herself look good to the world morphed spectacularly into becoming a spokesperson for victims worldwide, platforming herself on the back of what reads like the Gone Girl novel. What’s most interesting and also damaging is how those clever tactics with the court of public opinion turned a largely ambivalent press and public into an asset, because she managed to flip the narrative on their toxic marriage. She was no longer the controlling attention seeking wife, who prevented her hapless husband from seeing family and friends. She became the archetypal modern survivor whilst turning Depp into public enemy no1.
Very well played!
The begging question is why delay releasing this audio goldmine for so long? Were he and his team merely respecting the NDA? Did he imagine that the mutual divorce statement to the press would signal the end of further bad publicity? Was it even his team that leaked it? The claim is is that it wasn’t.
Well, the recent pre-trial review for Depp V News Group has thrown a little light on these questions and the strong possibility that the recordings have only just been re-discovered. How these were leaked is still unclear but they certainly turned the narrative of the last few years on its head.
The trial begins on March 23rd. I will be following it daily as it happens, will report on the progress and then the result.
Watch this space …
