Amber Heard's ex-girlfriend reveals how the actress was detached and 'shut down' during Johnny Depp legal battles - and says actress 'didn't know how to cry'

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Amber Heard 's ex-girlfriend Bianca Butti speaks out about her support for the actress and 'believing her' in a new book documenting her legal battle with Johnny Depp.
Ten years after Amber and Johnny's explosive divorce, authors Kelly Loudenberg and Makiko Wholey lift the lid on the couple's sordid story and delve into the workings of publicists, enablers and hangers-on in new book Hollywood Vampires.
Bianca supported Amber through the trial, despite their break-up, and she has now explained why she believed her ex and what it was like seeing her on the stand testifying.
She said: 'It almost sounded like someone else was talking.
'By the time you tell it a million times you remove yourself from emotional content. I believe all of it. Especially as someone who was her intimate partner.
'If I made a sudden move during an argument, she would recoil. It was clear to me that she was in a very violent relationship.'
Bianca claimed Amber, 39, and Jonny, 62, had a, 'dynamic [that] didn't allow them to express themselves in a proper way.'
She continued: 'She was trying to stand her own ground and he just wasn't having it. He was blacked out and drinking, a lot of drug doing, alcohol, and that is always a recipe for disaster.'
In the book, Bianca recalled Amber's headspace while awaiting the verdict and preparing for the next legal saga ahead.
'She had nowhere to put everything. She didn't know how to cry. She didn't know how to freak out. She didn't know how to break down. She just knew how to keep going. She was completely detached... She was shut down,' she said.
Amber and Bianca called off their relationship in 2021 after nearly a year of dating after spending months on different continents.
A source told the Sunday Mirror that their relationship simply 'fizzled out' between them.
While the actress was filming Aquaman 2 in England, her partner remained in Los Angeles, where she works as a cinematographer.
Both Amber and Johnny spoke to the authors for a documentary which they made ahead of writing their book, as did nearly 100 employees, friends and witnesses.
Both Amber and Johnny spoke to the authors for a documentary which they made ahead of writing their book, as did nearly 100 employees, friends and witnesses
Amber stopped cooperating when the project turned into this book. The authors continued to have access to Jonny and his team, and lift the lid on a combustible, intense and deeply disturbing relationship.
The Daily Mail has approached both Depp and Heard for comment: Heard did not reply, while Depp declined to comment.
The pair met in 2009 while making The Rum Diary, the debut project for Depp's production company Infinitum Nihil, and the film was released two years later.
At the time, Heard was dating Hawaiian artist Tasya van Ree while Depp was in a long-term relationship with French actress Vanessa Paradis, mother of their children Lily-Rose, now 26, and Jack, 23.
After their acrimonious split reached the bitterest of conclusions three years ago when they faced off in court, it was fair to say there was no real winner.
Heard was found to have defamed Depp with references to 'sexual violence' and 'domestic abuse' in a 2018 Washington Post column and ordered to pay her ex-husband $10million in damages.
The televised trial in 2022 turned into a circus with Heard decried by some as a conniving liar and Depp the saintly victim, while her supporters argued it was a dark day for the #MeToo movement and that it would put off other women from reporting domestic violence.
However even his most ardent fans could hardly claim that the debacle painted a wholly flattering picture of Depp.
The court heard messages he'd sent to his friend Paul Bettany about Heard, including: 'I will f**k her burnt corpse', as well as a recording of Depp smashing up the kitchen while drunk.
This verdict also came less than two years after Depp unsuccessfully sued The Sun for calling him a 'wife beater' when a judge found the 'majority' of his alleged assaults against Heard had been 'proved'.
But despite the drinking, drug use and toxicity laid bare in court, the actor, 61, remained the face of Dior Sauvage and rather than being cancelled, he is making a Hollywood comeback in the action thriller blockbuster Day Drinker next year.