Picture by EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP through Getty Pictures
On Wednesday, Kate Moss joined the chaos of the trial pitting Johnny Depp in opposition to Amber Heard over allegations of brutal home violence and defamation when she was referred to as to the stand through video hyperlink by Depp’s workforce very first thing within the morning.
Moss shortly—and briefly—denied a rumor about Depp pushing her down stairs that was referred to by Heard throughout the actress’ personal testimony.
“He by no means pushed me, kicked me, or threw me down any stairs,” Moss stated.
An ex-girlfriend of Depp’s, the supermodel was referred to as throughout the actor’s rebuttal of Heard’s countersuit claims in opposition to him simply earlier than closing arguments and jury deliberations have been anticipated within the case. It’s a flip of occasions that some authorized observers recommended Heard invited by mentioning the ugly rumor from the ’90s couple’s previous in her personal testimony earlier this month: that Depp had shoved Moss down a stairwell.
Moss instructed the courtroom on Wednesday that actually, on a visit the then-couple took to Jamaica, she slid down stairs and damage her again—and Depp got here to her support. “I screamed as a result of... I didn’t know what occurred to me, and I used to be in ache, and he got here working again to assist me, and carried me to my room and received me medical consideration,” she stated.
Depp’s lawsuit alleges that Heard “devastated” his profession after she wrote a 2018 Washington Publish op-ed that didn't title Depp however described herself as a home violence survivor—two years after she filed a brief restraining order in opposition to the actor.
Heard has counter-sued Depp, claiming that he and his authorized workforce launched a “smear marketing campaign” in opposition to her after her op-ed—together with claims from one former lawyer that referred to as her home violence allegations “a hoax.”
Throughout her testimony, Heard claimed that she punched Depp in March of 2015, in a battle inside their Los Angeles penthouse, and that she did so to attempt to defend her sister, Whitney Henriquez, from being pushed down a staircase by Depp. “I simply, in my head, immediately consider Kate Moss and stairs,” Heard testified.
The Moss-Depp pairing amounted to the ’90s in a snapshot: Moss, the spectral face of Calvin Klein adverts, and Depp, the raffish hero of Edward Scissorhands and What’s Consuming Gilbert Grape. Rising stars in adjoining fields, Moss and Depp turned up usually wanting like an ideal album cowl at film premieres, nightclubs, and birthday events for well-known buddies—“the chicest, druggiest couple since Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg,” creator Maureen Callahan wrote in a biography of ‘90s style, Champagne Supernovas.
In public, they left a path of paparazzi footage for just a few whirlwind years from 1994 to 1998. In non-public, they led an intense, stormy romance that produced rumors of extra than simply swings of temper.
Depp was arrested in September of 1994 for trashing a resort room in downtown New York Metropolis. A cop referred to as to the scene at 5:30 a.m. testified at his arraignment in Manhattan that she discovered him “sitting there, smoking a cigarette, cool and calm,” with Moss perched close by within the wreckage—“glass all over and furnishings the wrong way up and damaged desk legs,” the officer stated.
Alongside tabloid protection of their lives as a continuous occasion, the rumor surfaced that Depp had pushed Moss down stairs. The alleged incident was by no means documented just like the resort room demolition. But it surely persevered and surfaced within the defamation trial.
Heard’s point out of Moss set off a mini-celebration at Depp’s attorneys’ desk: lawyer Benjamin Chew turned and grinned at colleagues.
A “staircase incident” in Depp’s and Heard’s personal relationship was the topic of testimony from a number of corners, together with Heard, Depp, Henriquez, and Depp’s bodyguard.
It was notable as nicely for being the incident that produced the one unbiased eyewitness account of Depp hitting Heard—from Heard’s youthful sister, Henriquez. She testified that Depp grabbed Heard “by the hair with one hand and was whacking her repeatedly within the face with the opposite.”