Amber Heard said she did not seek a restraining order against Johnny Depp immediately after claiming he threw her phone at her because she was trying to protect him.

The Aquaman actress insisted she was trying to protect both her A-list husband and the couple’s privacy, adding: “I had been doing this for years.”

Ms Heard claims that her then husband arrived at their Los Angeles apartment on May 21 2016, allegedly “drunk and high” while she was there with friends.

She claims he was “very angry”, throwing her phone at her and hitting her in the eye before smashing “everything he could” with a magnum of champagne.

Mr Depp’s lawyer Eleanor Laws QC pointed out in court on Tuesday that in a US deposition Ms Heard said she had had “no contact” with Mr Depp after the alleged incident.

But Ms Laws read out a series of texts sent by Ms Heard to Mr Depp on May 24 in which the actress was asking him to call her and saying it was “important” and an “emergency”.

The barrister said that, from the texts, it appeared they had a conversation before they were sent, which Ms Heard said was “on the phone”.

A letter dated May 24, from Ms Heard’s lawyers to Mr Depp’s legal team at the time of her filing for divorce stated that the actress had been “violently attacked and threatened” by her husband three days earlier, and that there had been two other incidents in the past six months.

Ms Laws put it to Ms Heard that, if she was telling the truth, she would have told her lawyers about more than three incidents, to which the actress said: “There were many incidents.”

She said her lawyer had told her she only needed “a couple” of incidents in order to get the restraining order.

The letter went on: “Although Amber is afraid of Johnny, she strongly insists that we do everything possible to keep this personal matter out of the media spotlight.”

It said Ms Heard wanted to “work quickly towards a private and amicable resolution of all matters”.

Asked again about the texts sent in the days after the May 21 incident, Ms Heard said she was trying to get in touch with Mr Depp about keeping their divorce “under wraps” for as long as possible.

She said: “I thought it could stay under wraps for a few days and those few days were a precious few days in the hardest time of my life, and presumably difficult for Johnny as well, and I would have done anything to have those few days of privacy.”

Ms Heard was also asked about a text sent on May 25 that year in which Ms Heard said to Mr Depp that she had only included the “domestic violence stuff” because she called her lawyer when the police were at her home.

Part of the text message read: “(And only included the domestic violence/ restraining order stuff because I called the lawyer when the cops were here and I didn’t know what do to or why that happened and was scared).”

It was signed off: “I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you.

“I have nothing but love for you.”

Ms Heard told the court May 21 had been a “traumatic evening” but Ms Laws put it to her that there was nothing when the police arrived to justify a restraining order.

Ms Heard said she had failed to co-operate with the police because she wanted to protect Mr Depp and her privacy, adding: “I had been doing this for years.”

It was put to her again by Ms Laws that there was nothing in the apartment to warrant a restraining order.

Ms Heard said: “I firmly disagree, I didn’t file the restraining order at the time, I failed to co-operate, because I was trying to protect Johnny, I was trying to protect our privacy and I didn’t know what to do with the statement that could compromise everything I had been trying to hide for four years prior.”