Amber Heard verbally abused her assistant and paid her “very poorly,” the former employee testified Thursday — a drama-filled day in the defamation trial that saw a Johnny Depp fan get booted for allegedly making threats.

The third day of the explosive trial began with jurors hearing video deposition testimony from personal-assistant-to-the-stars Kate James, who worked for Heard from 2012 to 2015.

In the deposition from Feb. 18, James described Heard as a “very dramatic” boss who only paid her $25 an hour, about half her usual rate.

 She also said a “very insecure” Heard, who got mad any time she talked to Depp, berated James in a “blind rage” and regularly sent her a “barrage of abusive text messages between 2 and 4 a.m.”

She even claimed Heard verbally abused her own family members, saying: “Her poor sister was treated like the dog that you kick basically.”

The ex-employee said she never saw Heard with a black eye, broken nose, bumps, bruises or swelling and speculated the “age gap” between the former couple might have been the cause of some of their infamous marital trouble.

Depp, 58, is seeking $50 million in damages from Heard, 35, who he claims defamed him when she wrote in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed that she was a victim of “sexual violence.” 

While Depp wasn’t named in the op-ed, the actor claims it damaged his reputation and career after it was widely assumed Heard was writing about their five-year relationship.

Meanwhile, James called Depp a “total gentleman” and “very kind,” adding the “Black Mass” actor would always go out of his way to be nice to her son, Max.

“James testified under oath her experience working in a troubling, underpaid and abusive work environment during her employment with Ms. Heard,” a source close to Depp told The Post. 

“She never once saw or heard anything related to allegations of physical violence between the two and, in fact, suffered her own various forms of abuse at the hands of Amber.”

Meanwhile, two Depp fans were booted from the courthouse this week after the local sheriff allegedly found that they made violent threats against Heard online. The duo were told they could not reenter the courtroom and were escorted out by officers.

The two women, identified by a source as Brooke Walsh and Isabelle Orsini, had allegedly written hateful tweets about Heard, including Walsh saying, “I Can’t Wait For The Day I Kill Amber Heard.” 

“First of all, we aren’t fans, we are abuse survivors who are supporting another survivor,” Orsini told The Post, referring to allegations that Heard also physically abused Depp. “But this is a private matter that we are still getting sorted with the sheriffs.”

Walsh could not be reached for comment.

After James testified, the jury heard from Dr. Laurel Anderson, the former couple’s Los Angeles-based marriage counselor, whose Feb. 21 deposition was also played on video for the courtroom.

“They engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse,” Anderson said, explaining that both had upbringings marred by abuse and the two often triggered one another. 

Notably, Anderson, who saw the couple in 2015 and 2016, said she saw “multiple bruises” on Heard’s face in person during a solo session she had with the actress.

During their couples session, Heard often interrupted Depp and spoke over him, and the actor walked out of the sessions on more than one occasion, Anderson said. 

Heard, she testified, suffered from abandonment issues and “having him leave was her worst nightmare.”

Still, “it was a point of pride to [Heard] if she felt disrespected to initiate a fight . . . If he was going to leave her to de-escalate [a] fight, she would strike him to keep him there. She would rather be in a fight to keep him there,” the doc said.

Gina Deuters, a friend of Depp, took the stand next, largely serving as a character witness for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star. 

Deuters admitted to smoking weed and snorting cocaine with Depp, noting the actor famous for playing a drunken pirate “holds his liquor well.” 

She insisted to the court that alcohol and drugs did not make Depp violent, and she never witnessed the actor lay a hand on anyone or get angry.

But in a blow to Depp’s camp, Deuters’ testimony was thrown into chaos after Judge Penney Azcarate intervened.

“Have you been watching the trial this past week?” Azcarate said.

Deuters responded by saying, “Um I’ve seen clips of it online, yeah” then added after another question she had seen clips of other witnesses’ testimony. 

Azcarate immediately told the witness she was excused, striking her testimony from the record and informing the jury to entirely disregard what she’d said.

Following Deuters’ dramatic exit from the stand, the jury was presented with a deposition from Dr. David Kipper recorded on Feb. 22.

Kipper was hired to be Depp’s concierge doctor and help him detox from the dangerous mix of drugs he was taking. 

The doctor described the March 2015 incident in Australia in which Depp lost the top of his finger. 

Both Heard and Depp tell different versions of the incident, and Kipper confirmed the actor texted him about the accident.

“I don’t remember the conversation specifically, but part of his finger was missing,” Kipper said.

Dr. Kipper’s nurse once found Depp with bloody knuckles after hitting a wall in frustration or anger, the deposition revealed.

Texts between the two were also presented to the court, where Depp told his doctor that Heard “is as full of s–t as a Christmas goose” and called her a “malicious, evil and vindictive c–t.”

Earlier this week, the jury was told that Depp once sexually assaulted Heard with a bottle.

Heard’s attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, said that after gobbling between eight and 10 ecstasy tablets, the actor allegedly ripped off Heard’s nightgown, dragged her across the floor, “told her he’s going to f–king kill her and he f–king hates her,” punched and kicked her, and then penetrated her with the liquor bottle.

That same day the jury heard from Depp’s older sister, Christi Dembrowski, the first witness to be called to the stand, who said her younger brother’s “standoffish” ex-wife would often deride him — and once called him an “old fat man.”

On Wednesday, text messages introduced by Heard’s team revealed Depp once texted his friend that he hoped Heard’s “rotting corpse was decomposing in the f-–king trunk of a Honda Civic.”

The trial has wrapped up for the week and will continue on Monday. Still to come is expected testimony from high-profile figures like Elon Musk, James Franco, Ellen Barkin and the former couple themselves.