Things aren’t looking good for Johnny Depp and his libel case against The Sun. Last week, one of the presiding judges criticized the actor for failing to disclose important text messages. Now, the court has ruled that Depp’s ex-wife, Amber Heard, may attend his trial.
For context, Depp’s libel case against The Sun will start tomorrow. The Fantastic Beasts actor sued the magazine for calling him a “wife-beater” in a 2018 article detailing his relationship with Heard. The trial will take place in London.
Though Heard, who’s currently caught up in her own lawsuit with Depp, may attend the trial, she won’t do much else. According to a report published by CinemaBlend, the actress will not be testifying against her former partner.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Depp’s lawyers “had asked that Heard be barred from the courtroom unless she was there to give evidence, arguing that her testimony would be more reliable if she was not present during Johnny Depp’s examination.” Meanwhile, the court ruled that barring her from the courtroom altogether would be, as CinemaBlend put it, “detrimental to the defense.”
Should Heard end up attending the trial, she won’t be Depp’s only ex-partner present. She’ll be joined, for instance, by both Winona Ryder and Vanessa Paradis. Unlike Heard, however, both Ryder and Paradis are expected to offer testimony.
Both ex-partners have already come to Depp’s aid, of course. Not too long ago, Paradis filed a statement in which she called him “attentive, generous and non-violent.” Similarly, Ryder issued a declaration of support for Depp as part of his defamation lawsuit against Heard.
The legal battles have certainly taken their toll on the career of Johnny Depp. Heard’s defamation, so the actor’s lawyers claim, caused him to lose his iconic and incredibly profitable role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, which might be continuing without him now. Let’s just hope this whole thing soon comes to an end then so that everyone can get back on with their lives.
