Earlier this week, a thread of audio evidence in Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard‘s case went viral on the internet. After over three years of people believing that Depp had domestically abused Heard, the new evidence clearly showed the exact opposite.
Before going over what happened, let us quickly recap the whole story for those who are not familiar with it:
The very famous celebrity couple tied the knot in 2015, but with the marriage not even reaching two full years, Amber Heard filed for a restraining order against the Pirates of The Caribbean actor for domestic violence.
The divorce was finalized in 2016, but it wasn’t long until Depp fired back with a $50M defamation lawsuit where he accused Heard of hitting him and throwing solid items at his body and head – causing major injuries.
However, at that time, what the internet refers to as the “Cancel Culture” targeted Johnny Depp; with many tweets and Facebook posts calling him an abuser circulating all over social media as well as the press.
Needless to say, ever since then, we don’t want to say his career went down the drain because it really didn’t. But he definitely lost a few roles and some producers quit working with him. That’s, of course, in addition to his defamation.
While Heard was praised and recognized as one of the #MeToo public figures and domestic violence survivors.
On the other hand, the newly surfaced evidence – which is said to have been recorded during a couple therapy session – showed Heard admitting to starting the physical fight; pushing him, throwing things at him as he once claimed – as well as punching him in the face, several times.
There are also claims about her being the one who caused his severe finger injury back in 2015. Leading him to undergo surgery 3 times to be able to reconstruct it.
In the leaked recordings, she also literally said that she cannot promise Depp to ever stop abusing him because she’d get so mad sometimes – that she loses her mind.
That’s when the hashtag #JusticeForJohnnyDepp topped Twitter and people started turning on Heard, of course. With a big number saying that they never believed her from the beginning.
But with all the videos currently going viral of Depp flinching on red carpets and interviews whenever Heard moves her hand in his direction; still, how could we ever know for sure who’s the real abuser?
Like, it’s necessary to believe the victim whenever he/she comes out with domestic abuse or rape and sexual assault allegations. Because how could we not?
But now after we learned that Heard basically used the #MeToo movement to fulfill her devilish desire of defaming Depp and getting compensation money, she made it a thousand times harder for actual victims to demand their rights and jail abusers.
We shouldn’t forget that even though a few acquaintances admitted to never seeing a bruise on Heard at the time she filed for the restraining order – in addition to a security video showing her without the bruise on the same day she claimed the attack happened; still, there is photographic evidence of her swollen face.
Which is the main reason people believed her, to begin with.
The moral of the story is, even though we have no idea who’s at fault here in this complicated abusive marriage story; we need to understand that we should never be quick to judge or take sides unless both parties are heard and condemning evidence is presented and investigated.
For example, where have those recordings been all this time? What about the security cameras? Maybe both of them are abusers. Maybe Depp did hit her but just to fight back what she clearly admitted starting. Problem is, we’ll never know for sure.
The reason so many people were quick to judge is that very few understand and believe that men do get abused and that they too could be victims of domestic violence. They’re not always the villains in the story, especially when there’s evidence proving the opposite.
And it surely depends on the individual case, just like this one. However, the truth always comes out in the end. Doesn’t it?
