Actress Amber Heard had once pranked her former husband Johnny Depp with faeces while they were married. She had tagged her gag as "harmless".

Depp talked of the incident in a written court statement, when his libel trial began against publishers of certain news portals, over an article from 2018 in which he was labelled a "wife-beater", reports aceshowbiz.com.

Denying the charges, Depp said it was Heard who would often lash out. During the first day of High Court proceedings, the actor submitted a statement outlining the time he decided to go for divorce.

In the statement, Depp said, Heard or "possibly one of her friends" was responsible for "defecating" in their marital bed. When Heard was confronted about the action, she said it was "just a harmless prank".

During the proceedings, Depp once again debunked allegations of domestic violence, saying it was a "strong and central part" of his moral code never to strike a woman "under any circumstances, at any time."

"I find it simply inconceivable and it would never happen," he insited.

According to aceshowbiz.com, the trial is expected to last three weeks.

Depp and Heard got married in 2015. The two split in May 2016 and resolved their controversial divorce in 2017.