Doctor Who Evaluated Amber Heard for 12 Hours Says Actress Showed Signs of Personality Disorders
The housekeeper disputed she had ever seen Depp “passed out drunk” but acknowledged he had once fallen out of a hammock and had been found lying beneath it. After that incident, Roberts said, she arranged transportation for Depp’s children from his marriage to Vanessa Paradis, Lily Rose and Jack, to leave the island. However she testified that Jack stayed.
Amber Heard evaluation revealed two personality disorders, psychologist says
An expert in intimate partner violence called to give evidence in Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard has testified that her evaluation of the actor revealed two psychiatric diagnoses – borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder.
Depp’s witness, Shannon Curry, said that the diagnosis came from examination of Heard’s previous psychological assessments, coupled with direct examination on two occasions, and participation in a Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) test, a court in Alexandria, Virginia, heard on Tuesday.
‘The divorce case that never was’: the first week in the Depp v Heard trial
Curry said that Heard, 36, displayed a “reactive”, “overly dramatic presentation” and used words like “magical” and “wonderful” to describe events. Heard, she said, flitted between “princess and victim”.
As sophisticated, “cute and girlish” as such people may present, Curry said, they “may in reality be very destructive”, “dramatic, erratic and unpredictable” and possessed of an “underlying drive to not be abandoned but also to be center of attention”.
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Curry said borderline personality disorder represented an unstable personality, alert to rejection, with little access to self-regulation and marked by “a lot of anger, cruelty toward people less powerful, concerned with image, attention seeking and prone to externalizing blame, a lot of suppressed anger that may explode outwards”.
Anyone attempting an intimate relationship with such a personality, Curry said, would likely go from “idolized to dumpster”. It was typical of borderline personalities, she added, to be “assaultive as partners. They’ll make threats using the legal system, threaten to file for a restraining order, claim abuse.”
The doctor referred to Raquel Pennington, a yoga teacher and friend of Heard. Heard allegedly punched Pennington, who lived rent-free in the Depp-Heard five penthouse complex, on a shopping trip. Curry said that people with borderline personalities can devalue friends quickly.
The testimony on the forensic psychological evaluation of Heard – which the defendant would have to have agreed to have aired in court – came during the ninth day of the trial in which Depp is suing his former wife for defamation after she wrote an article describing herself as a survivor of domestic abuse during their marriage. Depp, 58, claims Heard abused him.
The court has been presented with witnesses’ recollection of the couple’s disputes and investigated for their observations of the relationship dynamics that underpinned them, as each side attempts to establish for the jury the probability of their version of events.
Earlier on Tuesday, Tara Roberts, the manager of Depp’s residence on an island in the Exuma chain of the Bahamas, testified that she witnessed a dispute between the couple during which “Amber was telling him he was a washed-up actor going to die a fat, lonely old man”.
Moments later, as Depp attempted to leave, Heard was observed “hugging and kissing” the actor as his wife “begged him to return”. Roberts said Depp “stood there with his arms by his side. He didn’t do anything”. She later noticed that Depp had a “mark across the bridge of his nose”, she said.
The housekeeper disputed she had ever seen Depp “passed out drunk” but acknowledged he had once fallen out of a hammock and had been found lying beneath it. After that incident, Roberts said, she arranged transportation for Depp’s children from his marriage to Vanessa Paradis, Lily Rose and Jack, to leave the island. However she testified that Jack stayed.
Throughout the trial, jurors have heard from a number of medical and mental health professionals.
Heard has claimed that she suffers from PTSD as a result of alleged abuse she faced from Depp. But on Tuesday afternoon, Curry claimed that PTSD is one of easiest psychological conditions to fake.
Rounding out witnesses on Tuesday was Los Angeles police officer Melissa Saenz, who testified about visiting the Los Angeles penthouse in May 2016, just days before Heard filed for divorce and showed up at a courthouse to seek a restraining order with a large mark on her face that she says came from a fight with Depp that night.
Officer Saenz said in a recorded deposition that she could see that Heard had been crying but saw no evidence of an injury. Depp’s lawyers say Saenz’s testimony is evidence that Heard faked her injury to damage Depp’s reputation.
The trial continues.
This article was amended on 27 April 2022. An earlier version incorrectly referred to Raquel Pennington as a mixed martial artist. Heard’s friend Raquel Rose Pennington is a yoga teacher and not the mixed martial artist of the same name. Also a reference to “Heard and Depp’s children” was corrected to refer to Depp’s children from his marriage to Vanessa Paradis and the reporting of Roberts’ testimony was clarified.
Doctor Who Evaluated Amber Heard for 12 Hours Says Actress Showed Signs of Personality Disorders
Jen Juneau is a digital news writer for PEOPLE since 2016.
Published on April 26, 2022 05:01 PM
A clinical and forensic psychologist who evaluated Amber Heard — and who was hired by Johnny Depp’s legal team — has testified that the actress showed signs of borderline and histrionic personality disorders, but not post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
On day nine of Depp’s defamation trial against Heard, 36, in Fairfax, Virginia, Dr. Shannon Curry told the court that she was asked to “provide a psychological evaluation of Ms. Heard” back in October 2021, but was never asked to do so for Depp, 58.
Dr. Curry reviewed “all the case documents” as part of her evaluation of the Aquaman actress, as well as Heard’s medical records (including for “mental-health treatment”), audio and video recordings, photos and “multiple witness statements.” She said she met with Heard “on two separate dates,” Dec. 10 and Dec. 17, 2021, for about 12 hours total face time.
“The results of Ms. Heard’s evaluation supported two diagnoses: borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder,” Dr. Curry said.
Dr. Curry also said she saw no evidence of PTSD in her evaluation of Heard but noted, “Just because somebody doesn’t have PTSD doesn’t mean that they weren’t harmed psychologically by whatever is being alleged — in this case, Ms. Heard is alleging that she was psychologically harmed and that she suffered PTSD because of abuse that she alleges occurred by Mr. Depp.”
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STEVE HELBER/POOL/AFP via Getty; EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty
Mayo Clinic defines borderline personality disorder as “a mental health disorder that impacts the way you think and feel about yourself and others, causing problems functioning in everyday life. It includes self-image issues, difficulty managing emotions and behavior, and a pattern of unstable relationships.”
“With borderline personality disorder, you have an intense fear of abandonment or instability, and you may have difficulty tolerating being alone. Yet inappropriate anger, impulsiveness and frequent mood swings may push others away, even though you want to have loving and lasting relationships,” the group adds.
Amber Heard. STEVE HELBER/POOL/AFP/Getty
Histrionic personality disorder, according to Mayo Clinic, is a condition “characterized by dramatic, overly emotional or unpredictable thinking or behavior.” In her testimony, Dr. Curry said that those with the condition can tend to take on a “victim” or “princess” role with false stories.
According to the clinic, it can manifest in “constantly seeking attention”; being “excessively emotional, dramatic or sexually provocative to gain attention”; “speak(ing) dramatically with strong opinions, but few facts or details to back them up” and more.
Dr. Curry said in court Tuesday that “there was information that supported” her conclusions in her evaluation of Heard “from multiple sources,” including a test the psychologist conducted herself and “evidence of those diagnoses in her records and in her self-report.”
RELATED VIDEO: Johnny Depp Says He Stayed in Amber Heard Marriage “Because My Father Stayed” in His
During cross-examination, an attorney for Heard asked the psychologist whether she was board certified. Dr. Curry responded that she is not.
The psychologist was also asked about having dinner and drinks at Depp’s home before she was placed on retainer. Dr. Curry said the meeting was between herself and the actor’s legal team, not Depp himself. She also said it wasn’t her job to evaluate Depp in this case.
“Don’t you think that’s a little odd that you’re getting interviewed by Mr. Depp to decide whether you’re going to testify adversely against Amber Heard?” the actress’s attorney asked, to which Dr. Curry responded, “I was interviewed by the legal team.”
JIM LO SCALZO/POOL/AFP via Getty; JIM WATSON/POOL/AFP via Getty
Depp is suing Heard for defamation over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post about surviving domestic violence, though she never mentioned Depp by name in the article. The Pirates of the Caribbean actor originally filed the $50 million lawsuit in March 2019.
During opening statements earlier this month, Heard’s attorney Ben Rottenborn said evidence will show she suffered domestic abuse by Depp that “took many forms,” including physical, emotional, verbal and psychological, as well as “sexual violence at the hands of Depp.” A spokesperson for Depp denies the allegations, calling them “fictitious.”
Back in November 2020, Depp lost his highly publicized U.K. libel lawsuit case against British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.” The court upheld the outlet’s claims as being “substantially true” and Heard testified to back up the claims. In March 2021, his attempt to overturn the decision was overruled.
Heard has not yet taken the stand in this trial.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
