Supermodel Kate Moss told a Virginia courtroom Wednesday that actor Johnny Depp never pushed her down any stairs.
The testimony was part of the ongoing defamation trial between Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard, which is in its final week.
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While Heard was previously recounting an alleged altercation between Depp and her sister, Whitney Heard, and her own reactions to it, she had also referenced a rumour that Depp had once pushed Moss down a flight of stairs: “I just instantly think of Kate Moss and the stairs, and I swung at him. In all my relationships to date, I hadn’t [delivered] a blow. For the first time, I hit him square in the face,” Heard said earlier this month.
Moss denied that ever happened. She and Depp dated for four years in the 1990s.
“Did Mr. Depp push you in any way down the stairs?” Depp’s lawyer asked Moss, who called into court via video from the UK.
“No,” Moss replied.
Depp launched the $50 million defamation suit filed against Heard in response to a 2018 Washington Post op-ed that Heard wrote about her experiences with domestic assault. The piece didn’t name Depp, but the Oscar-nominated actor maintains it’s “plainly” about him and that it cost him his career. Heard is countersuing Depp for $100 million in damages.
Both Heard and Depp have already taken to the stand. This week, Depp’s team had the opportunity to call witnesses as part of their rebuttal, which is why Moss testified on Wednesday.
Last week, the jury heard actress Ellen Barkin recall how Depp, who she dated for several months in the 90s, was “drunk a lot of the time.”
In her pre-recorded testimony, Barkin said that Depp was jealous and controlling, and that he allegedly threw a wine bottle across the room in a Las Vegas hotel room in 1998 while they were filming a movie together. “I don’t know why he threw the bottle,” she said.
“He’s just a jealous man, controlling: ‘Where are you going? Who are you going with? What did you do last night?’” Barkin said. She said at one point, Depp had noticed a scratch on her back and accused her of sleeping with someone else.
For weeks, the court has heard harrowing testimonies from both actors, who accuse each other of abuse while maintaining their own innocence. They’ve produced images, audio recordings, and private text messages to make their cases, all of which reveal a toxic relationship.
In one string of tweets, Depp says he wants to “burn” Heard and that he will “fuck her burnt corpse” to “make sure she is dead.” In one audio recording played repeatedly for the jury, Heard can be heard telling Depp that she “hit” him, but didn’t “punch” him. “I didn’t fucking deck you,” she says in the audio.
Closing arguments are expected Friday.
