Amber Heard's sister says she saw Johnny Depp 'whacking her repeatedly in the face'

Amber Heard’s relationship with Johnny Depp was “like watching a slow-motion gunshot”, the actress’s sister has told the court in the former couple’s defamation trial.

Whitney Heard Henriquez, the Aquaman star’s younger sister, said the pair had been “incredibly in love” early on in their relationship but that Depp was “almost unrecognisable” when he was drinking or taking drugs.

Ms Henriquez told the court she was attacked by Depp during one heated brawl in March 2015.

She said: “He strikes me in the back, I hear Amber shout, ‘Don’t hit my f**king sister,’ she smacks him and lands one. Johnny grabbed Amber by the hair and was whacking her repeatedly in the face.”

After the incident, Ms Henriquez said she was pressed to sign a non-disclosure agreement, adding: “I don’t think I signed it, and I left sometime after.”

She said: “When Johnny was using, there would be a fight, I saw it first-hand. There was always an argument, and it would seem to oscillate pretty quickly. It seemed to go back and forth pretty frequently.”

Speaking at Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia on Wednesday, Ms Henriquez said she had the nickname “marriage counsellor” for her frequent efforts to mediate arguments between Heard and Depp. “Clearly not very well,” she added.

But she acknowledged on cross-examination that she sided with Depp at times in their disputes, and said she worked to keep the couple together even after she watched her sister be physically assaulted.

“If my sister said that she still wanted to be with Johnny and if I could help with that in any way I was going to support her. I was going to be there for her,” she said.

Pirates of the Caribbean star Depp is suing his former wife for $50 million over an op-ed in which she described herself as a survivor of domestic abuse, which he alleges led to the destruction of his film career.

In his own testimony, Depp told the court he is the victim of abuse at the hands of Heard. He has denied abusing her. Heard has countersued him for $100m.

Earlier on Wednesday, Heard’s former best friend Raquel Pennington told the court she feared Depp could “do something that was worse than he ever intended” during the breakdown of their relationship.

Ms Pennington, who lived close to Heard in an apartment owned by Depp, denied suggestions from Depp’s lawyers that she had helped to “stage” photos which the Heard used as evidence of destructive rampages by the actor.

She also denied seeing make-up artists paint “fake bruises” on the actress’s face to use as evidence.

In a recorded deposition played in court, Ms Pennington said she witnessed multiple arguments between Heard and Depp throughout their relationship, but had never personally seen him physically hurt his wife.

However, she said there were “many times” she saw Heard with injuries, including in the wake of a 2015 altercation with Depp in Australia, when she saw “deep cuts” on her arms and cuts to her feet.

Ms Pennington also recalled a separate 2015 incident in which she observed Heard with a bloody lip, swollen nose and hair apparently “ripped out of her head”.

Ms Pennington said she saw Heard with black eyes and bruises during the breakdown of the relationship in 2015 and 2016, adding: “I was scared for Amber.

“I was sad for her and I was also sad for Johnny as he was my friend too… I was worried for her safety, I was worried he might do something that was worse than he ever intended.”

She said she had experienced occasions where Depp “would be acting like his wonderful self” before a rapid shift in personality, adding: “He would sometimes go off by himself or his mood would change to something darker.”

Ms Pennington’s former husband Joshua Drew, who lived with her in the apartment close to Heard’s, said he had never seen Depp or Heard hit one another but saw Heard with “significant bruising”.

In his deposition, Mr Drew revealed that Tesla entrepreneur Elon Musk was among late-night visitors to Heard’s apartment while she was married to Depp, specifying that he first saw Musk “about three or four weeks after” Heard filed for a restraining order against Depp in 2016. He said Heard and Musk later “dated intermittently”.

On Tuesday, Ms Pennington had told the court that she and Heard were no longer on speaking terms after they “grew apart”.

Ms Pennington also alleged that Heard had struck her during an argument, recalling an incident in which the actress “either pushed or hit me… on my cheek”.

As he arrived outside court on Wednesday, Depp presented a rose to a Court TV camera operator who has filmed across the trial.