Amber Heard expected to testify again in Johnny Depp $50 mn defamation trial

Los Angeles, May 26

Actress Amber Heard apparently will have the last word in Hollywood star Johnny Depp’s $50 million defamation trial against her over a 2018 op-ed on domestic violence.

As the marquee name in the defense’s short rebuttal, the ‘Aquaman’ star is expected to take the stand again Thursday, we hear. Depp’s side has one more rebuttal witness left, which will likely eat up the first hour or so of the morning, reports Deadline’.

If nothing changes, Heard will close out the last day of witness testimony in the six-week-long trial that started on April 11.

With around an hour of time left in the defense’s case and just over a week after Heard was last on the stand, the actress will be the very last witness before closing arguments start bright and early on May 27.

Relentlessly attacked on social media before and during the trial and claiming her career has been hobbled, a frequently tearful Heard testified that the dirty laundry airing trial was “torture”.

Testifying in early May and last week, Heard added on May 16: “I want to move on; I want Johnny to move on.” As occurred with Depp himself earlier this week, who may or may not be taking the stand, can prove fluid. After testimony in late April, Depp was going to be called by the defense, as Deadline revealed on May 21, but then Heard’s clock watching legal team shifted priorities.

In the end, Johnny Depp’s own legal team put their often glib and giggling client back on the stand today. The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ actor was preceded by strong star power support from ex-girlfriend and supermodel Kate Moss via video link from the UK.

“I have never in my life committed sexual battery, physical abuse,” Depp told the Virginia jury and Judge Penny Azcarte on Wednesday.

“All these outlandish, outrageous stories of me committing these things and living with it for six years and waiting to be able to bring the truth out,” the past Oscar nominee said of Heard’s claims of years of physical, psychological, verbal and sexual abuse during the couple’s relationship.

“No matter what happens, I did get here and I did tell the truth,” Depp added.

“And I have spoken up for what I’ve been carrying on my back reluctantly for six years,” he went on to say, referencing the duo’s temporary restraining order tainted divorce.

Depp sued Heard in March 2019 over the late 2018 op-ed the actress wrote about becoming “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” Though the op-end never mentioned Depp by name, the past Oscar nominee claimed it “devastated” his already waning career. Depp also claimed that he was in fact the one who was abused in the relationship.

Having failed to get the case dismissed or moved out of Virginia, Heard in 2020 countersued for $100 million.

That countersuit came months before Depp’s UK libel case against The Sun tabloid for calling him a “wife beater” proved dramatically unsuccessful in November 2020.

IANS