London (AFP)

Three years after their tumultuous divorce, the American stars Johnny Depp and Amber Heard met Tuesday in court for the opening in London of the defamation lawsuit brought by the actor to the tabloid The Sun, who had portrayed him as a violent husband.

The 57-year-old actor, who played the Jack Sparrow in the "Pirate of the Caribbean" saga, accuses the British newspaper and its owner "News Group Newspapers" (NGN) of having presented as a proven fact, in an article published in April 2018, that he hit his ex-wife.

Scheduled to last around three weeks, with a witness list worthy of a star cast, the trial opened in the morning at the High Court in London.

Wearing a dark scarf covering his face and sunglasses, the actor arrived by the main entrance, while Amber Heard, also with a covered face, came from the back of the court.

The two ex-spouses met on the set of "Rhum Express" in 2011 before getting married in February 2015 in Los Angeles.

The couple divorced with a bang at the start of 2017. The 34-year-old actress then spoke of "years" of "physical and psychological" violence, accusations strongly contested by Johnny Depp.

In the divorce proceedings, Amber Heard had withdrawn her complaint and Johnny Depp had paid her seven million dollars, which the actress had given back to associations.

In addition to the two former spouses, the French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis and the American actress Winona Ryder should testify by video conference in favor of Johnny Depp. Originally scheduled for mid-March, the trial has been postponed due to the new coronavirus pandemic.

In written testimony to the proceedings, Vanessa Paradis, who had been in a relationship with Johnny Depp for 14 years, portrayed him as "a nice, attentive, generous and non-violent man and father".

- "Rocketman" -

Johnny Depp's lawyers also rely on the testimony of Winona Ryder, who had a relationship with Johnny Depp in the 1990s. "He was never violent with me," she said.

The defense of the Sun is based on 14 accusations of violence against the actor between early 2013 and May 2016.

She tried until the last moment to have the defamation complaint dismissed, arguing in particular that Johnny Depp had breached a court order instructing him to send them a series of text messages in which he allegedly demanded drugs from her. assistant.

These messages were sent in late February-early March 2015 by the Hollywood star when she was in Australia for a shoot, shortly before an alleged incident that Amber Heard described as "three days of physical assault".

Johnny Depp spoke of "happy pills" and a "white thing", apparent references to MDMA pills (an amphetamine) and cocaine, according to the defense of NGN.

After finding on Monday that the order to reveal these messages had not been respected, judge Andrew Nicol overruled last Thursday, allowing the trial to be held.

The judge, however, rejected on Thursday Johnny Depp's request that "all communications" be published between Amber Heard and two men he suspects of having had connections with his ex-wife. According to the actor, he is the founder of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk (appearing in contacts as "Rocketman") and the other is the actor James Franco.

Johnny Depp has also initiated another defamation proceeding against Amber Heard in the United States.

© 2020 AFP