FAIRFAX, UNITED STATES (NYTIMES) - Johnny Depp’s legal team called British model Kate Moss, a former girlfriend, to testify on Wednesday (May 25) in his defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard to rebut a rumour that Heard had alluded to earlier in court suggesting that Depp had pushed Moss down the stairs in the 1990s.
Heard had made the reference while testifying about a fight in 2015 in which, she said, she struck Depp because he had swung at her sister while she was standing at the top of a staircase.
“I just, in my head, instantly think of Kate Moss and the stairs and I swung at him,” Heard said.
In Moss’ brief testimony over a video call, she recalled slipping down the stairs at a resort in Jamaica during their relationship, which she said lasted from 1994-98.
“There had been a rainstorm, and as I left the room I slid down the stairs and I hurt my back,” Moss said. “He came running back to help me and carried me to my room and got me medical attention.”
Moss denied that Depp ever pushed her down the stairs.
“He never pushed me, kicked me or threw me down any stairs,” Moss said.
Heard had alluded to the “rumour” she had heard about Depp pushing Moss down the stairs in an earlier trial in Britain in 2020 that was associated with the question of whether Depp had physically abused his wife. In that case, Depp sued a British tabloid company and editor after The Sun newspaper called him a “wife beater” in a headline.
The judge in that case found that Depp had assaulted Heard repeatedly during their marriage and that he had put her “in fear of her life.”
Moss did not testify during the proceeding in London. But Depp’s legal team chose to call her as a witness in this trial after Heard again referred to Moss in the courtroom.
When she did, on May 5, Depp’s lead lawyer, Benjamin Chew, pumped his fist, appearing to celebrate the mention, which opened the door for Moss to be called to testify about her relationship with Depp.
Heard has accused Depp of repeated physical abuse, as well as several instances of sexual assault, during their relationship and has said that she only ever hit her ex-husband in defence of herself or her sister.
Depp has denied ever hitting or sexually assaulting Heard, and has described her as the abuser in the relationship.
Earlier in the trial, Heard’s lawyers called Ellen Barkin, with whom Depp was also romantically involved in the 1990s, to testify. Barkin called him a “controlling” and “jealous man,” recounting an incident in Las Vegas in which, she said, Depp threw a wine bottle across a hotel room.
She said there had been a fight going on between Depp and other people in the room, but she could not remember the cause of it.
In this case, Depp, 58, sued Heard, 36, for defamation over her 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post, in which she said her career suffered after she became “public figure representing domestic abuse.” The article did not mention Depp by name, but he has asserted that its allusions to their relationship “devastated” his acting career.
The seven-person jury is also considering Heard’s countersuit, which claimed that Depp defamed her when his former lawyer made statements to British tabloid The Daily Mail saying that her abuse accusations were a hoax.
Heard has testified that Depp had a pattern of jealousy-fuelled rages, which she said often coincided with his drug and alcohol use and were precipitated by his suspicions that she was having affairs, which she has repeatedly denied.
She said that during their relationship, Depp punched, slapped and kicked her, as well as tore clumps of hair out of her head and sexually assaulted her with a bottle.
Depp testified over four days earlier in the trial, describing Heard as someone with a “need for conflict” and a “need for violence.”
Issues that he said she had lashed out at him physically over included a potential postnuptial agreement, her desire for Depp to abstain from drugs and alcohol, and his tardiness to her 30th birthday dinner.
Depp was expected to be called back to the stand later on Wednesday.
