Earlier this month, an audio recording changed the way that many of Johnny Depp's harshest critics viewed his highly contentious divorce from Amber Heard.
The former couple is back in court these days thanks to a lawsuit Depp filed against Heard for allegedly violating a non-disclosure agreement that both parties signed at the time of their split.
It was against this backdrop that a recording in which Heard admits to abusing Depp was made public.
Throughout their divorce and subsequent civil trial, the actors have leveled shocking accusations at one another.
In previous legal exchanges, Heard accused Depp of giving her a black eye during one of his frequent alcoholic rages.
Depp countered by accusing Heard of nearly cutting his finger off during a blowout fight.
So it was not totally unexpected that Amber's attorneys would respond to that damaging recording with a new set of allegations against Depp.
What is surprising, however, is that Heard's team has now gone public with one of the most shocking revelations of this entire ugly ordeal.
According to documents obtained by Page Six, previously unseen text messages that Depp sent to actor Paul Bettany in 2013 were read in London's High Court on Wednesday.
Depp was reportedly on hand for the proceedings.
“Let’s burn Amber,” Depp allegedly texted.
“Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f–k her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead.”
The texts were sent not long after Depp and Heard started dating and before the couple got married in 2014.
Lawyers for Heard also read messaged Depp sent to Bettany in May of 2014, which seemed to affirm her allegations about Depp's drinking problem.
“I’m gonna properly stop the booze thing, darling… Drank all night before I picked Amber up to fly to LA, this past Sunday…Ugly, mate," Depp allegedly texted his friend.
“An angry, aggro Injun in a f–kin’ blackout, screaming obscenities and insulting any f–k who got near…I’m done," he went on.
“I am admittedly too f–ked in the head to spray my rage at the one I love…For little reason, as well I’m too old to be that guy But, pills are fine!!!”
Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman blamed UK tabloid The Sun for acquiring the texts and taking them out of context in order to misrepresent the actor's sentiments.
“What does The Sun do to keep Amber Heard’s hoax alive? [Wednesday] in court we learned the answer — cherry-picking a fragment of a single frustrated text message to a friend sent out of 500 gigabytes of text and email messages provided," Waldman said.
“Inconveniently for The Sun, here is what Mr. Depp actually said next in his text – that he could never harm Amber: ‘I am admittedly too f–ked in the head to spray my rage at the one I love’.”
Waldman noted that previous lawyers for Depp accidentally shared 70,000 messages from and to the actor with The Sun's legal team.
This week's litigation was part of a preliminary hearing, with Depp and Heard scheduled to square off in a full hearing on March 23.
We'll have further updates on this developing story as more information becomes available.
