Amber Heard sparred with one of Johnny Depp’s attorneys as she was grilled about Kate Moss and other witnesses supporting him.
Ms Heard returned to the stand as the last witness for her rebuttal on Thursday and spoke of the toll the trial has taken on her as she was “harassed, humiliated and threatened” on a daily basis by Mr Depp’s fans.
She then faced an intense cross-examination from Mr Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez, who began cross-examination by asserting that the trial has been hard because her “lies have been exposed to the world multiple times, right?”
“I haven’t lied about anything I’ve been here to say,” Ms Heard replied.
Ms Vasquez asked about Ms Heard’s allegations about an incident with Mr Depp at the Hicksville trailer park in 2013, noting that her own witness Raquel “Rocky” Pennington, a previously close friend, didn’t support her claim that Mr Depp grew jealous and grabbed a woman by the wrist.
The manager of the trailer park where they were staying at the time appeared in court on Monday. Ms Heard said she didn’t recognise the witness, claiming that he “wasn’t there” and that he wouldn’t know what took place in private. Ms Heard denied that she was the one who was jealous.
Ms Vasquez then pivoted to Ms Heard’s claim that she had “no idea” the press would be outside the court when she sought a restraining order against Mr Depp in May 2016.
“I said I did not have anything to do with it,” Ms Heard responded.
Ms Vasquez said Ms Heard wasn’t “shocked at all” when she met photographers when she left the courthouse because she was aware that they would be present.
Ms Heard rejected the allegation that she made entertainment site TMZ aware that she would be at the courthouse.
She was then asked about testimony from a former TMZ staffer who said on Wednesday that they had received a tip from a verified source. When it was suggested that it came from her team, Ms Heard pushed back.
“Absolutely not. Why would I want that? What survivor of domestic violence wants that?” she said.
Ms Vasquez then asked Ms Heard about a 2015 incident in which she said she punched Mr Depp in defence of her sister while thinking of him pushing his former partner Kate Moss down a set of stairs.
“You didn’t expect Ms Moss to agree to testify that that never happened, did you?” Ms Vasquez asked.
“Incorrect,” Ms Heard replied. “I know how many people would come out of the woodwork to be in support of Johnny.”
“So you’re saying Ms Moss needs to ‘come out of the woodwork’ to testify for Mr Depp?” Ms Vasquez asked.
Ms Heard said everyone who was “around in the ‘90s and ‘00s” had heard the same rumour concerning Ms Moss and Mr Depp.
“Of course that’s what flashed through my head when my violent husband not only swung for me but also swung for my sister,” Ms Heard said.
She added that Ms Moss’ testimony in support of Mr Depp “doesn’t change what I believed at the time when we were on the stairs and I thought he was going to kill my sister”.
The defamation trial between Mr Depp and Ms Heard began on 11 April in Fairfax, Virginia following Mr Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2019. Mr Depp is arguing that she defamed him in a December 2018 op-ed published in The Washington Post titled “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change”.
In her op-ed, Ms Heard wrote that “like many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the time I was of college age. But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim”.
“Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she added at the time.
While Mr Depp isn’t named in the piece, his legal team argues that it contains a “clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser”, which they say is “categorically and demonstrably false”. Mr Depp is seeking damages of “not less than $50m”.
Ms Heard has filed a $100m counterclaim against Mr Depp for nuisance and immunity from his allegations.
Closing arguments are set to take place on Friday (27 May), after which the jury will be sent out to deliberate.
