Editor’s note: Some testimonials contain graphic language and descriptions of sexual and physical assault.
Actor Amber Heard returned to the courtroom on Thursday in the civil trial for a defamation suit filed by her ex-husband Johnny Depp as one of the replies summoned by his lawyers. Depp’s legal team rested his case earlier in the day. The trial is set to kick off in its sixth week, and final arguments are expected on Friday.
Depp is suing Heard in the $ 50 million Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia in an opinion piece he wrote in December 2018 in The Washington Post describing himself as “a public figure representing the ‘domestic abuse’. His lawyers say he was defamed by the article even though he never mentioned his name.
Actor Johnny Depp arrives at the Fairfax County Circuit Courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia, Thursday, May 26, 2022. Michael Reynolds / AP
Depp has denied ever hitting Heard and says she was the aggressor in the relationship. Heard has testified about more than a dozen different cases of physical abuse he claims to have suffered at the hands of Depp.
Depp’s legal team had called for rebuttal witnesses, including Depp himself. Heard’s team will then present its own rebuttal testimony as it tries to prove its $ 100 million claim. Heard claims she was defamed by Depp’s lawyer who described her allegations of abuse as a hoax.
Depp returned to the podium Wednesday to answer the testimony of Heard’s defense, calling his accusations “crazy.”
“Ridiculous, humiliating, ridiculous, painful, savage, incredibly brutal, cruel and all false,” Depp said when asked about his reaction to Heard’s accusations when he previously testified at trial.
Depp testified as a witness to the rebuttal: both he and Heard testified extensively before the trial.
Also on Wednesday, supermodel Kate Moss, a former Depp girlfriend, denied that Depp had ever pushed or assaulted her during the course of their relationship. Heard, in his testimony, had made a reference to Moss and a rumor that Depp had pushed Moss down some stairs when the two left in the 1990s.
Model Kate Moss, the ex-girlfriend of actor Johnny Depp, vowed to testify via a video link during Depp’s defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard in Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Virginia. May 25, 2022. Evelyn Hockstein / Reuters