Depp says 'in no condition' to ever hurt Heard

Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp testified Thursday that he was often so high or strung out on drugs that he was "in no condition" to hurt his ex-wife Amber Heard.

The third day of Depp's libel trial against the British tabloid The Sun over its 2018 "wife beater" claim saw the 57-year-old admit that he had a bad temper and often blacked out. Depp also conceded calling himself a "savage" in a text and getting peaks of jealousy over Heard's alleged extramarital affairs.

But he explained that the 2014-2015 period covered on the third day of the three-week High Court trial was the low point of his life. "I remember that I was in a great deal of pain and uncontrollable spasms," he said of an August 2014 incident while he was detoxing with the help of Heard and his doctor on his private island in the Bahamas.

"I did not push Ms Heard or attack in any way, and certainly I was in no condition to in any way," he said. "I was in no physical condition to push anyone."

'Romanticises drug culture'

The blockbuster lawsuit against the publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) and The Sun's executive editor Dan Wootton is designed to clear Depp's name. But it has so far seen Depp admit to using various drugs and smashing up nightclubs and hotel suites across the world while still trying to film and keep his marriage afloat.

NGN said it has "overwhelming evidence" he repeatedly attacked Heard during three drug-fuelled years between 2013 and 2016. He met Heard on the set of the 2011 comedy drama "The Rum Diary". They married after he completed rehab in 2015 and officially divorced two years later.

Depp sat still as the defence read a letter from his rehab doctor David Kipper that concluded the star "romanticises the drug culture" and has no intention to quit. "He is .... quite childlike," the doctor's conclusion said.

Depp spoke haltingly throughout the hearing and appeared to often struggle to find the right words. He said he disagreed with the doctor's "personal" assessment and thought that Kipper was just getting to know him at the time.

'Spat on her face'

Depp's defence is trying to portray the 34-year-old Heard as a manipulative and scheming publicity seeker who was collecting damaging evidence against her husband from the start. NGN lawyer Sasha Wass countered by going through each one his alleged offences in graphic detail.

"You pulled her hair and slapped her face, spat on her face while holding onto a bottle of spirits while drinking from it," Wass told Depp at one point. "And all this time you were screaming at Ms Heard that you hated her, threw Ms Heard against the ping-pong table, which collapsed," she read.

"You were smashing her head so that the back of her head hit against the fridge, and you were blaming her for doing this," she alleged.

Depp said no and "not true" after each sentence and ran his hand through his shoulder-length hair with a sigh. But he recalled feeling unsettled about Heard's relationship with fellow actor Billy Bob Thornton on the set of the film "London Fields".

'There were blackouts'

Depp tried to portray himself as a depressed superstar who was struggling with insomnia and a bad drug habit while trying to keep a turbulent marriage afloat.

He admitted once punching a wall until his knuckles bled during a peak of rage at Heard. "I would rather express my anger at an inanimate object than at a person that I love," he said in his defence.

He also said he was prone to blackouts but still remembered particularly episodes well enough to deny the various charges. "There were blackouts for sure and in any blackouts there are snippets of memory and in recalling that memory you see snippets of pictures but you don't see the whole memory," he said.