KEY POINTS

  • Gina Deuters claimed Amber Heard "isolated" Johnny Depp from his family and friends during the exes' marriage
  • Deuters likened Heard to a "Stepford Wife," claiming the actress would bake cookies and take Depp's shoes off after work
  • Heard was "absolutely controlling" and even rushed the former couple's wedding, Depp's friend claimed

A close friend of Johnny Depp claimed that the actor deserves justice from "sociopathic show pony" Amber Heard.

Gina Deuters, the wife of Depp's longtime business partner and assistant Stephen Deuters, said she witnessed what went down during Depp and Heard's 15-month marriage and alleged that the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star is the real victim amid the exes' ongoing legal battle, Page Six reported.

Depp's marriage to Heard as "less of a relationship and more of an Amber invasion," she told the outlet.

"Instantly she started moving her friends into his properties," she alleged of Heard. "It was quite shocking how she eventually isolated him from his family and friends … it definitely felt like we’d kind of lost him."

Deuters admitted that she initially found the "Aquaman" actress to be "cold" and was puzzled by her behavior. She then likened Heard to a "Stepford Wife," claiming that the actress would bake cookies and even take Depp's shoes off after work.

"Knowing Amber was this confident feminist, it was strange she was behaving quite subservient, like a nice little housewife-type role. [But] that was all in the beginning – that would change quite quickly," Deuters told the outlet.

Deuters shared that she and her husband Stephen helped arranged Heard and Depp's two weddings, one in Los Angeles and another in the Bahamas. Heard was allegedly "absolutely controlling" and even rushed their wedding, to the point where Depp's family wasn't notified and some couldn't attend the ceremony, Deuters claimed.

She added that the exes' wedding on Depp's private island in the Bahamas in 2015 "very much felt" like a takeover.

"It was the Amber Heard party as opposed to their wedding. I remember her father doing a speech and he kind of motioned around the area [of the island], saying something like, 'Look, honey, all this is yours now,'" Deuters claimed. "My heart sank a little bit … were they more excited about all the wealth they married into, or was this about love?"

Deuters further claimed that her husband Stephen called Heard a "sociopathic show pony" after he unwittingly became the mediator in the exes' marriage in its final difficult days as "no one else wanted to deal with Amber."

Deuters added that it was "quite heartbreaking" to witness Depp "deteriorate physically and emotionally" following his divorce from Heard.

Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in which she described herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse." Though Depp was not named in the article, he claimed it cost him movie projects.

Deuters was among Depp's witnesses but didn't get the chance to give her full evidence to the jury in Virginia as her testimony was struck from the record after Heard's journalist pal Eve Barlow intervened. Deuters, who also admitted to the judge that she had seen clips of the trial online, was ordered to leave the court on April 14.

Barlow was also thrown out of the courtroom for live-tweeting, texting and posting information online during the trial. Barlow allegedly brought up a social media post from Deuters, claiming that it was a post from the current trial when it had been shared in 2021 during Depp's previous trial against British tabloid The Sun.

Barlow has been barred from the courtroom for the rest of the defamation trial.

Depp and Heard's trial is on hiatus and will resume next week. The actor will return to the stand for cross-examination, while Heard's sister Whitney Henriquez and actress Ellen Barkin will testify on her behalf.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard
1. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard - This messy breakup doesn't seem to end. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard split up in 2016 after less than two years of being married. They first met during the filming of “The Rum Diary” in 2009 but their relationship was only made public in 2012. Their divorce was allegedly caused by bad behavior on both sides where Heard accused Depp of domestic abuse. To this day, there is still an on-going court trial between the two as Depp filed a $50 million defamation suit against his ex-wife. In Depp’s defense, it was Heard who was bullying and abusing him over the span of their relationship and that the allegation against him back in 2016 when Heard publicly blamed him for abuse was untrue. John Phillips_UK Press/ Getty Images