Amber Heard's friend describes Johnny Depp's alleged abuse in essay

Credit: Jason Merritt

Credit: Jason Merritt

Photographer iO Tillett Wright said she called 911 on behalf of Amber Heard.

In a revealing essay for Refinery 29, Wright opened up about the alleged abuse in Heard's marriage to Johnny Depp.

"I called 911 because she never would," Wright wrote. "Because every time it happened, the sweet, loving man we all cared for so much would come back with apologies, profuse, swearing up and down that he understood how bad what he had done was, and swearing never to do it again."

Wright detailed some of the alleged attacks, writing that the violence began with a kick on an airplane and was followed by punches and shoves and an alleged assault in December that ended with Heard waking up on a bloodstained pillow.

"I saw the pillow with my own eyes," Wright wrote. "I saw the busted lip and the clumps of hair on the floor. I got the phone call immediately after it happened, her screaming and crying, a stoic woman reduced to sobs."

Wright said it was hard to come to terms with the alleged abuse because she considered Depp a friend and referred to him as her "brother." She said Heard eventually came to her with details of her marriage.

"I sat and listened, my own heart aching because I had so much care for the tender, generous man inside of all this rage, and yet… the bottom, unequivocal line is, nothing she ever could have said or done deserves what she describes as him dragging her up the stairs by the hair, punching her in the back of the head, choking her until she almost passed out, and smashing his forehead into her nose until it almost broke," she wrote.

Wright called for others to be compassionate toward Heard and all other victims of domestic violence.

"It doesn't matter what was said between the two lovers, it doesn't matter if the romance was coming to an end, because nothing warrants that response. No person, ever, should suffer violence at the hands of the person they love," she wrote.

About the Author