Amber Heard takes the stand in her defamation defense against Johnny Depp

Amber Heard took the witness stand in a Virginia courtroom on Wednesday to discuss her experiences and her relationship with Johnny Depp, her ex-husband, who is suing Heard in a $50 million defamation case.

“I struggle to find the words to describe how painful this is,” Heard said when her attorney asked how she felt about the case. “This is horrible for me to sit here for weeks and relive everything.”

Heard spoke on her own behalf after her legal team presented a clinical psychologist who said the actress was diagnosed with panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The psychologist, Dawn Hughes, testified that Heard endured emotional abuse and intimate partner violence during her time with Depp. Depp denied committing violence against Heard in his own lengthy testimony in the case at the Fairfax Circuit Court.

Depp is suing Heard over a 2018 op-ed published by The Washington Post in which Heard called for change in how the U.S. treats abuse survivors and urged support for the Violence Against Women Act.

The essay didn’t directly refer to Depp by name, but his 2019 court complaint states, “the op-ed plainly was about … Ms. Heard’s purported victimization after she publicly accused her former husband, Johnny Depp, of domestic abuse in 2016, when she appeared in court with an apparently battered face and obtained a temporary restraining order against Mr. Depp.”

Depp sued Heard for three counts of defamation, seeking at least $50 million in compensatory damages and a punitive award of at least $350,000, along with attorney fees and court costs.

Heard, 36, has filed a countersuit against Depp, 58, seeking $100 million in damages and saying his legal team falsely accused her of fabricating claims against Depp.