London - Hollywood marriages are rarely the sturdiest of unions, but it's difficult to think of one that has unravelled quite so catastrophically as the 15-month marriage of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
The 52-year-old Pirates Of The Caribbean star and 30-year-old bisexual beauty married at their Los Angeles home in February last year and celebrated with a romantic, beach-front ceremony on Depp's private island in the Bahamas.
Three weeks ago, it was all over.
A court hearing isn't until next month, but the exes have wasted no time drawing their battle lines and slinging mud at each other with increasing ferocity.
Heard got the first punch in, accusing the supposedly affable superstar of years of abuse, while his friends have leapt to his defence, claiming Heard is a gold-digging fantasist.
But who to believe? Here are both sides of the case for the most toxic divorce of our times.
The violence
Her side:
Depp has been verbally and physically abusive for the entirety of their four-year relationship, according to Heard in court papers.
This included her husband “launching angry, hostile, humiliating and threatening assaults at me whenever I questioned his authority or disagreed with him”.
A friend went further, claiming she was the victim of “brutal, vicious and bloody” beatings.
The most serious incident, which allegedly occurred in December, had Amber claiming she feared for her life after Depp attempted to suffocate her with a pillow.
She claims she managed to text a female friend during the attack, who arrived at their Los Angeles home to find her with a cut lip, swollen eye and a chunk of hair missing.
Photos released in a magazine by Heard, allegedly taken after the attack, show bruising around an eye and a bloody lip.
At her birthday party a month ago, Heard says Depp turned up late, inebriated and high.
After the guests left, the couple argued and he allegedly grabbed her by the hair and shoved her to the floor, before smashing up their flat with a magnum bottle of Champagne.
In the last attack, two weeks ago and a day after his beloved mother, Betty Sue Palmer, died aged 81, Heard says Depp threw an iPhone at her during an argument, hitting her in the right cheek and eye with great force.
She later produced a photograph showing her bruised face.
Friends claim Heard has “horrific and chilling” video evidence of one attack, but that has yet to be produced.
As further visual evidence of his violent streak, Heard's camp has highlighted photos of Depp with a heavily bandaged hand last year, the result - it says - of another fight with her in which he smashed his fist into a wall so hard he had to fly back to the US from filming in Australia to have surgery.
A judge was sufficiently impressed by Heard’s accusations to grant her a temporary restraining order against Depp.
His side:
Depp has so far made only one statement: “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”, it said.
Responding to Heard's request for a restraining order, Depp's lawyer said she was attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.
His friends have highlighted an Instagram photo, later deleted, showing a smiling and apparently uninjured Heard at a birthday party for British TV host Amanda de Cadenet the day after the alleged phone-throwing incident.
The marriage
Her side:
Those in the Heard camp blame the pushy and besotted Depp for the disastrous marriage.
Even before they walked down the aisle, Heard had cold feet.
At their Los Angeles engagement party in March 2014, she wondered aloud if she was doing the right thing, but Depp was persistent.
As one of her friends explained: “When Johnny Depp wants you, you don't really say no. Why would you?”
After they married, her fiercely independent streak and his insecurities rapidly led to deep-rooted jealousy and the breakdown of their relationship.
In court papers lodged in California last week, she claims Depp has “a short fuse and his temper is exceptionally scary for me as it has proven many times to be physically dangerous and/or life-threatening to me”.
Depp has himself previously admitted he has “a hellish temper”. Even after saying all that she has, Heard insists she still loves Depp and won't file a police report against him because she doesn't want to “bury him” with a court case.
His side:
Depp’s not the only one with a filthy temper, according to those in the know.
Heard, a Texan who proudly admits to owning a .357 Magnum revolver and being a devotee of the hardcore libertarian writer Ayn Rand, has confessed she has a fiery personality. Friends say she may look refined, but can get vicious when angry.
Not surprisingly, the marriage was on shaky ground from the start.
“With Amber, there has been non-stop drama,” says a source. “They are just not good together.”
Another opined: “She was really too young and experimental to settle down. Johnny knew this but was blown away by her.
“He was attracted to the same things about her that he eventually couldn't handle.”
Scoffing at her insistence that she doesn't want to hurt Depp, his friends say she timed her divorce announcement to damage his new film, Alice Through The Looking Glass.
The evidence
Her side:
Heard has reportedly asked for two of Depp’s bodyguards to give evidence in court on the grounds they were present at her final confrontation with her husband.
They witnessed the violence, she says, and one of them pleaded with Depp: “Boss, please”.
His side:
The bodyguards saw nothing of the sort; they instead claim Heard tried to deceive them by screaming: “Stop Hitting Me!” when Depp was nowhere near her.
It was Heard, they say, who flew into violent rages, frequently throwing bottles and charging at Depp, forcing them to pull her off him.
Police who answered a call to their home found no evidence of any injuries, even though she later sported bruises around her eye.
The officers also said that Heard never told them Depp had hit her, only that they had argued.
The money
Her side:
This is absolutely not about money, her people insist.
Despite being distinctly small-time before her relationship with Depp - who's worth an estimated £300-million - Heard is very much a financially independent woman, they say.
His side:
This absolutely is about money. She’s not remotely independent, they say, as court documents reveal her spending far outweighs her earnings.
According to the documents, her monthly income is just less than £7 000. Her basic monthly “expenses” come to around £30 000. Depp reportedly didn't sign a prenuptial agreement, and under California law would have to give her 50 percent of his earnings over the period of their marriage.
Lawyers predict she could be awarded at least £14m.
The infidelity
Her side:
“Amber was totally faithful to Johnny throughout their marriage,” says a friend.
A source, who claims to know Depp well, told People magazine “he is very insecure when it comes to Amber” and that she has exacerbated his “jealousy issues”.
“Johnny tends to get moody and difficult and go into himself when things aren't right in a relationship”.
His side:
Depp knew Heard was bisexual when they married, but he grew increasingly suspicious of her relationships with a string of lesbian or bisexual friends.
Top of the list was her previous wife (by an unofficial marriage), photographer Tasya van Ree, with whom she shared a four-year relationship. Then there was British model Cara Delevingne, whose “quite flirty” behaviour with Heard in 2014 sparked furious rows.
Depp was also suspicious of Heard's close relationship with lesbian photographer iO Tillett Wright, who at one point moved into their guest house.
The scheming
Her side:
Depp is using his enormous power as one of Hollywood's biggest stars to silence her claims and turn the spotlight on her.
“Amber has suffered through years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Johnny,” say her lawyers.
His side:
“Heard is a blackmailer who has been scheming against Depp for years”.
“But he was blindsided by love,” according to Doug Stanhope, a comedian friend of Depp.
Stanhope claims he was at Depp's house hours before the actor”s final confrontation with his wife, and Depp told him Heard had said she was leaving him and that she had threatened to lie about him publicly if he didn't agree to her terms. All strenuously denied by Heard, of course.
Tom Leonard, Daily Mail