(Press Association) Amber Heard has claimed that she beat Johnny Depp into stopping pushing her sister down the stairs after recalling a “rumor” that he had done the same to Kate Moss.
the Aquaman The actress told the High Court that this “information” was “fresh in my mind” during the alleged incident in 2015, and she reacted “in an instant” to protect her brother.
Heard, 34, made the claim on his second day of giving evidence in his ex-husband’s defamation action against The Sun newspaper about a 2018 article labeling him as a “handcuff puncher.”
On Tuesday, Eleanor Laws QC, representing Depp, asked about the “stairs incident” in Los Angeles in March 2015 when Heard said he believed Depp was going to push his sister, Whitney Henríquez, up the stairs.
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The lawyer said: “This was a very unpleasant discussion between you and Mr. Depp and it was you who was the violent one.” Heard replied, “Johnny hit me and my sister,” before denying that he spat at Pirates of the Caribbean star, or threw a can of Red Bull at him.
Laws later told Heard that she, too, “hit him in the face (Mr. Depp) with a clenched fist.”
Heard replied, “That day I hit Johnny in defense of my sister. I was about to push him down the stairs and, a moment before that happened, I remembered the information I had heard (that) pushed an ex-girlfriend, I think it was Kate Moss, down the stairs. I had heard this rumor from two people and it was fresh in my mind. “
She added: “In an instant I reacted in defense of her.” Heard went on to claim that Depp had hit her “for years” and “for years that she hadn’t even hit him.” She said, “I never had a hit and I will never forget this incident … it was the first time after all these years (I hit it).”
Laws said Heard had “changed his story” and had never mentioned the story about Moss before. She said Heard “didn’t mention anything about Kate Moss in your mind, you’re just making this up as you go along.”
Laws played a clip of Heard’s 2016 deposition in Los Angeles, in which the actress talks about the alleged incident, and said that at no point in her “free narrative” did she mention Moss.
Heard said, “No, I didn’t have a chance.” She added: “I haven’t had the freedom of time, space or energy, even to list every thought that crossed my mind.”
Depp is suing NGN and The Sun executive editor Dan Wootton for publishing an article on April 27, 2018 with the title: “Gone Potty: How Can JK Rowling Be The True And Happy” Casting Of The Johnny Depp’s wife in the new movie Fantastic Beasts? “
Her lawyers say the article had the meaning that there was “overwhelming evidence.” Depp assaulted Heard on several occasions and left her “fearful for her life.”
NGN is defending the article as true and says that Depp was “controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Ms. Heard, particularly when she was under the influence of alcohol and / or drugs.”
The trial continues.
