Kate Moss is testifying that her ex-boyfriend, Johnny Depp, did not push her down some stairs, contradicting prior testimony by Amber Heard, who previously alluded to an unsubstantiated rumor Depp pushed Moss down a staircase in the 1990s.
Model and fashion icon Moss is testifying, via video link, as a rebuttal witness for Depp amid a trial of dueling defamation lawsuits.
She said there was an incident when she was in Jamaica with Depp and that she slipped on some stairs after a rainstorm, after Depp had already left the room. She screamed in pain and Depp came back to help her, carrying her to her room and getting her medical attention. Moss said Depp never pushed her down any stairs during the course of their relationship.
Heard mentioned Moss when she recalled in her testimony earlier this month that the only time she landed a blow on Depp, she claims, was because Depp was allegedly about to punch her sister, Whitney Henriquez, who Heard said was standing at the top of some stairs.
“I don’t hesitate. I don’t wait. I instantly think of Kate Moss and the stairs, and I swung at him,” Heard said, in her testimony in early May.
When Heard name-dropped Moss, she inadvertently opened up Depp’s team to being allowed to bring up past relationships during the trial.
Depp’s team took full advantage of the opportunity by not only calling upon Moss, but also grilling Heard about her own past domestic violence charge. Depp’s lawyer, Camille Vasquez, used the past domestic violence charge as her closing bit of questioning for Heard under cross-examination last week.
In 2009, Heard was arrested at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for allegedly hitting Tasya van Ree, with whom she was in a relationship at the time. The charges were later dropped, and van Ree released a statement in 2016 saying Heard was “wrongfully accused” of the incident.
The court battle, unfolding in a courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia, centers on an op-ed Heard wrote for the Washington Post in 2018, in which she describes herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Though Depp isn’t named in the article, Heard made prior allegations of abuse against Depp in 2016, which he claims are false and are referenced in the piece.
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million for defamation for allegedly false domestic abuse accusations she made against him that he said hurt his career. Heard is counter-suing Depp, also for defamation, for $100 million.
While Heard maintains she was abused by Depp, Depp claims just the opposite: he was abused by her and not the other way around.
Published: May 25, 2022 09:10 am