The legal saga between Johnny Depp and his estranged wife Amber Heard continued on Tuesday, with Heard’s legal team claiming that Depp is trying to “thwart” the divorce proceedings with his demand that she enter confidentiality agreements about financial information.
The new legal papers obtained by TheWrap also call Depp’s demand “blatant threats.”
Depp’s legal team filed papers last week complaining that Heard has “inexplicably refused” to sign a confidentiality agreement pertaining to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star’s financial records.
“Johnny does not dispute that Amber is entitled to the majority of the information sought in her discovery requests and subpoenas. He is willing to produce the documents necessary for Amber’s evaluation of the relevant issues in this case, such as division of the community estate and spousal support,” the filing read. “He has asked, however, that a confidentiality agreement be executed prior to the production of documents in order to protect the parties’ privacy.”
But Heard’s team says that Depp’s requests — which would include a potential $100,000 penalty for every breach — are “blatant threats.”
“[Depp] and his counsel’s demand for the execution of these two non-disclosure agreements which impose undue financial hardships and burdens on [Heard] are nothing but blatant threats by [Depp] and are illustrative of his continued attempts to thwart real progress in this case,” the new court papers say.
They continue, “In reality, it has been, and continues to be Depp who refuses to be forthright with his financial information and has stymied resolution of this case.” Heard’s legal team goes on to accuse Depp of “stonewalling the progress of this case.”
Heard is seeking documents including tax returns, bank returns and financial statements so that the estranged couple can work through the financial aspects of the divorce.
Heard filed for divorce from Depp — with whom she starred in 2011’s “The Rum Diary” — in May, a little more than a year after they married. Days later, she filed documents claiming that Depp had been abusive to her throughout their relationship, citing a particular alleged incident days before her divorce filing, during which Depp allegedly struck her in the face with his phone.
Following the divorce filing, Depp’s spokesperson issued a statement saying, “Given the brevity of this marriage and the most recent and tragic loss of his mother, Johnny will not respond to any of the salacious false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies about his personal life.”
The statement continued, “Hopefully the dissolution of this short marriage will be resolved quickly.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.