LAST UPDATE | 21 Jul 2020
AMBER HEARD HAS claimed she heard a “rumour” that Johnny Depp pushed Kate Moss down the stairs, during another intense day in the Hollywood star’s blockbuster libel action against The Sun newspaper.
The Aquaman actress told the High Court she rushed to her sister’s aid after she remembered the “information” during an alleged “nasty row” with her ex-husband, when she thought he was going to push her sibling down a flight of stairs.
On her second day in the witness box, Heard, 34, alleged her former co-star James Franco asked her “what the f***?” when he saw her face the day after a separate alleged incident in which she claims Depp was violent towards her.
She has also faced questioning over her relationships with Franco and Tesla founder Elon Musk, as well as the infamous “defecation incident”.
Depp, 57, is suing The Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN) and its executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article which labelled him a wife beater.
On Tuesday, Eleanor Laws QC, representing Depp, asked about the “stairs incident” in Los Angeles in March 2015, when Heard has said she believed Mr Depp was going to push her sister, Whitney Henriquez, down the stairs.
The barrister said: “This was a very nasty row between you and Depp and it was you who was the violent one.”
Heard claimed Depp “hit both myself and my sister”, before denying that she spat at the Pirates Of The Caribbean star, or threw a can of Red Bull at him.
Telling the court she “did strike Johnny that day in defence of my sister”, Heard said: “He was about to push her down the stairs and, the moment before that happened, I remembered information I had heard (that) he pushed a former girlfriend – I believe it was Kate Moss – down the stairs.
“I had heard this rumour from two people and it was fresh in my mind.”
She added: “In a flash I reacted in defence of her.”
Heard went on to allege that Depp had punched her “for years” and “for years I had never even hit him”.
She said: “I never so much as landed a blow and I will never forget this incident… it was the first time after all these years (I hit him).”
Laws said Heard had never mentioned the story about Moss before and accused her of “making this up as you go along”.
Earlier, Laws read out text messages between Heard and Musk from May 22 2016, in which Heard tells Musk that she is going to obtain a restraining order against her then husband.
This was the day after an alleged incident at the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles, where Depp and Heard lived, in which the actress claims Depp threw her mobile phone at her, hitting her in the face – which the actor denies.
Questioning Heard, Laws said Musk offers to “arrange 24/7 security for you”, adding:
The offer would stand, even if you never wanted to see me again… anyway, sorry for being an idiot. The radio silence hurts a lot. It only matters because I really like you.
The barrister then referred to evidence given by Alejandro Romero, a concierge at the Eastern Columbia Building, who said he saw Musk visiting Heard “when Mr Depp was in Australia”.
Heard responded: “He’s wrong. I wasn’t even in communication with Elon until 2016.”
The court was shown CCTV footage of Heard in a lift to her penthouse with Franco, 42, at the Eastern Columbia Building on May 22 2016 at about 11pm.
Asked about the footage, and if the pair, who starred together in The Adderall Diaries in 2015, were “trying to avoid being seen by the camera”, Heard said: “We were talking. He was saying to me ‘oh my god, what happened to you?’
“He saw my face… when I let him in. He saw my face and he said ‘what the f***?’”
Laws asked: “That’s not secretive talking on that camera?”
Heard said: “Yes, it’s discreet.”
Heard also told the court the suggestion she left faeces in the bed she shared with Depp at the Los Angeles apartment is “absolutely disgusting”.
She said it is “unimaginable” that one of her friends left the excrement, which the court has heard was found the day after her 30th birthday party in April 2016, and that she “can’t fathom what adult would ever do such a thing”.
The actress also insisted she had visible injuries in the days following the alleged incident on 21 May.
Heard is being questioned over 14 allegations of domestic violence, which NGN relies on in its defence of an April 2018 article that called Depp a “wife beater”.
She has accused Depp of verbal and physical abuse throughout their relationship, including screaming, swearing, punching, slapping, kicking, headbutting and choking her, as well as “extremely controlling and intimidating behaviour”.
Depp, however, says he was “not violent towards Ms Heard – it was she who was violent to him”, and claims his ex-wife was “building a dossier” of false allegations as an “insurance policy for later”.
The actor is suing NGN and Wootton over the publication of an article on 27 April 2018 with the headline: “Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?”
His lawyers say the article bore the meaning there was “overwhelming evidence” Depp assaulted Heard on a number of occasions and left her “in fear for her life”.
NGN is defending the article as true, and says Depp was “controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Ms Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs”.
Comments have been closed as legal proceedings are active in this case.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say