A former personal assistant to Amber Heard said she had never seen the actress suffer any physical abuse at the hands of then-husband Johnny Depp – but said Heard once spat in her face when she asked for a higher salary. Herd fell into a fit of blind rage, texting incoherently at 4 a.m. and was often drunk and taking illegal drugs, Kate James testified in a video testimony played in court Thursday during his defamation suit. of Herd. Depp, on the other hand, was very calm, almost shy, “like an absolute master of the South,” James said. The “Pirates of the Caribbean” actress accused Heard of indirectly defaming him in a 2018 opinion article she wrote for the Washington Post. Herd refers to herself in the article as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” The track does not name Depp. But his lawyers say he is clearly referring to a restrictive order that Herd requested in May 2016, shortly after Depp was informed he wanted a divorce. Depp denies abusing Herd, but Herd’s lawyers say the evidence will prove he did. The actor’s denials, they claim, lack credibility because he drank often and used drugs to the point of killing and not remembering anything he did. The video testimony from James offered the opposite view: Depp was the peaceful one, he said, while Herd was often drunk and verbally abusive, including her mother and sister. “Her poor sister was treated like a dog you kicked, basically,” James said. James, who worked for Herd from 2012 to 2015, said she was paid “very badly”. She said she was hired with an initial salary of $ 25 an hour and that her duties ranged from picking up Herd’s dry cleaning to talking to the actress’s Hollywood agents. James also said she was instructed to take two copies of any magazine featuring Herd and store them in the garage so that Depp could not see them. Herd erupted in “blind rage” when James failed to place the magazines in the garage, James said. Regarding Herd and Depp’s time together, James said that Herd was a “very dramatic person” who was deeply insecure in the relationship. Heard often telephoned James to cry and complain about Depp, he said. “I remember one time he called me when she was alone in New York and she was crying and walking the streets,” James said. She said she told Herd to go inside: “I was worried the paparazzi might take a picture of her.” Some of the testimonies focused on a text message that Depp had sent to James after his separation from Herd. Depp’s text read: “Come for a purple spot and we will make her flabby ass nice and good”. A lawyer asked if the word “purple” meant wine and if “she” meant Heard. James said she did not want to speculate. “That’s the way he writes,” James said of Depp. “It’s very random and you do not dispute it. “He writes in a very abstract way.” Lawyers also presented a video footage of Laurel Anderson, a couple therapist who worked with Herd and Depp in 2015, when they were 29 and 52, respectively. Anderson said they were both abused as children. As a couple, they were involved in “mutual abuse,” he testified. Herd’s father beat her, Anderson said, adding: “It was a source of pride for her if she felt disrespectful of starting a fight.” Herd would also rather fight Depp than see him leave and “hit him to keep him there,” Anderson said. The therapist recalled a moment when Herd told her that Depp was “strengthening,” as he put it, “taking a lot of drugs.” “And he slapped him because he was incoherent and talking about being with another woman,” Anderson said. He noted that Depp’s mother was in the hospital at the time. Anderson said Depp told her that Herd “gave as much as he got.” She also said that in at least one session in which she saw Herd alone, the actress told her that Depp had hit her. He said Heard showed her bruises, both in photos and in person. Anderson said Herd also told her that Depp at one point allegedly said, “Nobody likes you. You get fame from me. I’m falling in love with you. You are a prostitute. “ Anderson also said that “Herd’s style of talking like a jackhammer” and the habit of cutting Depp overwhelmed him. Heard “wanted to get divorced,” but he also did not, and was still figuring out what to do, Anderson said. “She loved him. He loved her. She was not stupid. “He knew what they were doing was not healthy.” Both Depp and Herd are expected to testify in Fairfax County District Court, scheduled for six weeks, along with actors Paul Bettany and James Franco and tech businessman Elon Musk. Our Morning and Afternoon newsletters are compiled by Globe editors, giving you a brief overview of the day’s most important headlines. Register today.