Johnny Depp did not push me down the stairs, Kate Moss tells libel trial
The British super model became the latest celebrity to be dragged into the actor’s libel action against Amber Heard.
Kate Moss told a court that Johnny Depp did not push her down a flight of stairs as rumoured, as the model became the latest celebrity to be dragged into the actor’s libel action against Amber Heard.
Moss, 48, who was in a relationship with Depp from 1994 to 1998, made a brief appearance via video link to recall an incident during a holiday at a resort in Jamaica.
The model became involved in Depp’s $US50m lawsuit against his former wife because Heard had mentioned her during her testimony, apparently referencing a rumour about the Caribbean holiday.
Heard, 36, had been recalling an alleged row in March 2015 in which she said she feared Depp would push her sister, Whitney Henriquez, down the stairs.
Heard said she “instantly” thought about “Kate Moss and the stairs”.
One of Depp’s lawyers greeted Heard’s mention of Moss with an enthusiastic fist pump because it meant that he could call the model to testify.
Moss told the court in Fairfax, Virginia, that she was giving evidence from Gloucestershire.
Her testimony lasted less than three minutes. Asked by Ben Chew, one of Depp’s lawyers, if she knew the actor, Moss replied: “Yes I do. I had a relationship with him.”
It was a romantic relationship, Moss said, and took place in the mid-1990s.
She was asked to recall a holiday with Depp at the GoldenEye resort in Jamaica and she said she fell down a flight of stairs after a rain storm.
Moss said: “We were leaving the room and Johnny left the room before I did and there had been a rain storm and as I left the room, I slipped down the stairs and I hurt my back.
“And I screamed because I didn’t know what happened to me and I was in pain and he came running back to help me and carried me to my room and got me medical attention.”
Asked by Mr Chew if Depp had pushed her, Moss replied: “No.” Asked if Depp had ever pushed her down any stairs, Moss replied: “No, he never pushed me, kicked me or threw me down any stairs.”
She added that she had never given evidence before in court proceedings. Mr Chew attempted to ask her why she had done so in this case but Heard’s team lodged an objection, which was sustained by the judge. Heard’s lawyers declined to cross-examine Moss.
Depp returned to the stand and said the incident in Jamaica occurred exactly how Moss said it had.
“Ms Heard took the story and turned it into a very ugly incident all in her mind,” Depp, who had previously told his former wife about Moss’s fall, said. “There was never a moment where I pushed Kate down any set of stairs yet she’s [Heard] spewed this three times before.”
Depp, 58, claimed it was Heard who had started the rumour that violence had occurred. He said: “I’d never heard a rumour of that before Ms Heard grabbed hold of it.”
A source close to Heard said: “So Johnny Depp didn’t abuse Kate Moss. That makes him one for two in the abuse column. But, to date, he’s zero for one in the courtroom on the central issue in this case back when he lost the same exact case in England.”
In 2020, the High Court in London ruled that News Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Sun, had not libelled Depp in a 2018 article that referred to him as a “wife-beater”.
Depp sued Heard over a column in The Washington Post in 2018 in which she described herself as a victim of domestic abuse. She has countersued him for $US100m. The pair married in 2015 but separated a year later and divorced. The trial continues.
The Times
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