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| - Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp testified in a London court on Thursday that he was so often high or strung out on drugs that he was "in no condition" to hurt his ex-wife Amber Heard. On the third day of Depp's libel trial against the British tabloid The Sun over its 2018 "wife beater" claim, the 57-year-old admitted he had a bad temper and often blacked out. Depp also conceded accidentally clashing heads with Heard during one fight and then texting her father an apology in which he admitted taking things "too far". But he told the High Court the 2014-2015 period was a low point during which he contemplated taking his own life. "I remember that I was in a great deal of pain and uncontrollable spasms," he said of an incident in August 2014 while he was detoxing with the help of Heard and his doctor on his private island in the Bahamas. "I did not push Ms Heard or attack in any way, and certainly I was in no condition to in any way," he said. "I was in no physical condition to push anyone." The blockbuster lawsuit against the publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) and executive editor Dan Wootton, who wrote the article, is designed to clear Depp's name. He has vehemently denied being violent to Heard or any other woman. But the case has so far seen him admit to using various drugs and smashing up nightclubs and hotel suites across the world while still trying to film and keep his marriage afloat. NGN said it has "overwhelming evidence" that he repeatedly attacked Heard during three drug-fuelled years between 2013 and 2016. They married after he completed rehab in 2015 but officially divorced two years later. Depp sat still as the defence read a letter from his rehab doctor David Kipper that concluded the star "romanticises the drug culture" and had no intention to quit. The actor spoke haltingly and appeared to often struggle to find the right words. He shook his head to deny he was responsible for two bruised eyes Heard appeared to have in a photo taken after one dispute. "It's a lie and a hoax," he said of another charge. Depp's team is trying to portray Heard, 34, as a manipulative and scheming publicity seeker who was collecting damaging evidence against her husband from the start. NGN lawyer Sasha Wass countered by going through each one of his alleged offences in graphic detail. "You pulled her hair and slapped her face, spat on her face while holding onto a bottle of spirits while drinking from it," Wass told Depp at one point. "And all this time you were screaming at Ms Heard that you hated her, threw Ms Heard against the ping-pong table, which collapsed. "You were smashing her head so that the back of her head hit against the fridge, and you were blaming her for doing this," she alleged. Depp said "no" and "not true" after each sentence and ran his hand through his shoulder-length hair with a sigh. But he recalled feeling unsettled about Heard's relationship with fellow actor Billy Bob Thornton on the set of the film "London Fields". "There were many instances when there was jealousy on my side," Depp said. "There were many instances when it was provoked, in a way." Depp tried to portray himself as a depressed superstar who was struggling with insomnia and a bad drug habit while trying to keep a turbulent marriage afloat. "There are several times I have spoken to Ms Heard and said listen, we are a crime scene waiting to happen," he said. Depp said he was prone to blackouts but still remembered particular episodes well enough to deny the various charges. "There were blackouts for sure and in any blackouts there are snippets of memory," he said. And he conceded that Heard did her best to get him off drugs for good in 2014. "She does have a heart and she understands the pain I was experiencing," he said. zak/phz/spm
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