On April 25, 2022, during the Johnny Depp defamation trial, Depp's attorneys called on Depp's butler, a genteel Englishman named Ben King. Until this point in the trial, there hadn't been much evidence to counter the prosecution's portrayal of Depp as a “drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat women.” Mr. King, however, told a different story. Depp's butler, who managed the home where the couple stayed in Australia during the 2015 filming of the fifth installment of the “Pirates” franchise, described how Depp's then-wife Amber Heard threw a vodka bottle at him, smashing his finger against the edge of a bar in the house. King testifies that he found Depp's severed fingertip in a tissue on the floor of the bar along with a broken bottle of Stolichnaya vodka. He said a “big chunk” of the marble bartop had been broken off. Mr. King said that he had witnessed frequent arguments between the couple during their stay in Australia, in London, but he had never known Mr. Depp to be violent. King's testimony was the turning point in the trial. After his testimony, the tide of opinion was on Depp's side, and never left.

Amber Heard was defeated in her defamation suit; the jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages.

Listen to the episode here.