Amber Heard began her testimony against her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, as the second week of Depp's libel trial against the Rupert Murdoch-owned British newspaper, The Sun, began. The Fantastic Beasts actor had filed the suit after the tabloid repeated claims by Depp's ex-wife, Aquaman star Heard, that the Pirates of the Caribbean star was physically abusive towards her during their tumultuous, short-lived marriage.

Heard's testimony is the linchpin of the defense for the News Group Newspapers (the division of Murdoch's News Corp that directly owns The Sun), as the company's claim is that its reference to Depp as a "wife-beater" in its article is justified based on Heard's constant statements that Depp did, in fact, abuse her.

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Ahead of her testimony on Monday, Heard released a written witness statement accusing Depp of controlling and intimidating behavior, including screaming, swearing, threats, punching, slapping, kicking, head-butting and choking. The statement also noted, “Some incidents were so severe that I was afraid he was going to kill me, either intentionally or just by losing control and going too far. He explicitly threatened to kill me many times, especially later in our relationship.”

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As her testimony began, Heard claimed, “There was an argument in a hotel room in Tokyo that resulted in Johnny kneeling on my back and hitting me on the back of the head." Something that came up during the cross-examination of Depp was revisited in Heard's testimony, specifically the fact that Depp had a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" persona. Heard explained, “He would blame all his actions on a self-created third party instead of himself, which he often called ‘the monster.' He would speak about it as if it was another person or personality and not him doing all these things.”

She further noted that Depp was charming at the beginning of their relationship, but grew darker the longer they were together. “When Johnny puts his attention on you, with all his intensity and darkness, it is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. When I say he was dark, he had a violent and dark way of speaking: the way he talked about our relationship being ‘dead or alive’ and telling me that death was the only way out of the relationship.”

Heard claimed that she wanted so badly to "fix" Depp that she put up with behavior that should have led her to leave Depp earlier, but he and his management team always found a way to bring her back until it was just too much.

Heard will be testifying over the next few days, and the cross-examination promises to be quite explosive.

Via Deadline.