In an audio confession leaked to the Daily Mail, Heard admits to hitting Depp with pans, pots and vases. The conversation took place during a therapy session in 2015, as the tinseltown pair attempted to save their tumultuous marriage.

“I'm sorry that I didn't, uh, uh, hit you across the face in a proper slap, but I was hitting you, it was not punching you. Babe, you're not punched,” Heard tells Depp, attempting to explain a violent outburst the night before.

During the two-hour conversation, Heard - an advocate for women’s rights and domestic violence survivors - tells Depp to “grow the f*ck up” and “just because I’ve thrown pots and pans does not mean you cannot come and knock on my door.”

Depp recounts at least three physical fights in the preceding months, and tells Heard that if the violence continues, “we have to be apart from one another...so that we don't f*cking kill each other or f*cking worse, you know, f*cking really kill each other or f*cking break up or whatever.”

After ridiculing Depp for leaving their house when several arguments broke out, Heard tells the ‘Pirates of the Carribean’ actor “I can't promise you I won't get physical again. God I f*cking sometimes I get so mad I lose it.”

Depp and Heard’s marriage was the stuff of Hollywood cliches. Wedded in 2015, the pair separated a year later, with Heard obtaining a restraining order along with a divorce. Though the pair finalized their split with a joint statement declaring “there was never any intent of physical or emotional harm,” the acrimony continued, with Heard penning a Washington Post op-ed in 2018 detailing her experience as a domestic abuse victim.

Though Depp is not explicitly named in the piece, he has since sued Heard for defamation, with the $50 million case postponed until this August. Both Heard and Depp have filed allegations of each other’s supposed abuse as part of the case, including graphic pictures of cuts, bruises, and in Heard’s case, hair supposedly ripped from her head.

For fans of Depp, the tape vindicated their idol. The hashtag ‘JusticeForJohnnyDepp’ trended on Twitter on Saturday, as supporters lent Depp their sympathy. “I hope those who instantly assumed Johnny Depp was guilty and made public comments to that effect are feeling fairly shit about all this now,” British comedian Jonathan Pie tweeted.