Johnny Depp details 'nervous breakdown' after Amber Heard 'severed his finger'

Johnny Depp testified against ex-wife Amber Heard in court on Wednesday, saying she was the one who became violent when their relationship soured, reported Reuters.

After sharing details about the start of their relationship on Tuesday, Depp returned to the witness stand in a Virginia court and detailed how Heard's behaviour changed later.

The couple had frequent arguments that included "demeaning name calling" and "bullying" by her, Depp said.

"It seemed like pure hatred for me," Depp said, adding, "If I stayed to argue, eventually, I was sure it was going to escalate into violence, and oftentimes it did."

Asked to describe the violence, Depp said Heard would "strike out" with a slap or shove and recalled times she threw a TV remote at his head or a glass of wine in his face.

During one argument, Depp said Heard grabbed a vodka bottle with a handle and threw it at Depp's hand, cutting the top of his right middle finger, he said.

He said at first he did not feel pain. “I felt heat and I felt as if something were dripping down my hand and then I looked down and realised that the tip of my finger had been severed."

"I was looking directly at my bones sticking out and the meaty portion of the inside of your finger."

Depp went on: "Blood was just pouring out and at that point I think that I went into some sort of… I don’t know what a nervous breakdown feels like but that’s probably the closest I’ve ever been."

"Nothing made sense and I knew in my mind and in my heart, this is not life. This is not life. Non-one should have to go through this," he said.

“I started to write… in my own blood on the walls little reminders from out past that essentially represented lies that she had told me and lies that I had caught her in..."

Jurors were shown a photo of the injury, which was surgically repaired.

"She has a need for conflict. She has a need for violence. It erupts out of nowhere," Depp said of Heard.

Depp said he would remove himself from the situation, sometimes locking himself in a bedroom or bathroom, and never struck Heard. "In all of these situations, my main goal was to retreat," he said.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star, 58, is suing Heard, 35, for defamation after she accused him of abuse.

Depp has accused Heard, also an actor, of defaming him when she penned a December 2018 opinion piece in The Washington Post about being a survivor of domestic abuse.

A state court judge in Fairfax County, Virginia, is overseeing the trial, which is in its second week and is expected to last six weeks. Reuters