Amber Heard dated Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk even as she tried to reconcile with Johnny Depp, the former couple’s agent told their defamation trial.
Christian Carino was asked about Ms Heard and Mr Musk’s relationship in pre-recorded deposition testimony that was played for the jury in the multi-million dollar trial in Fairfax, Virginia.
“I don’t know whether they were dating, but they had definitely spent time together,” he told lawyers in his deposition.
He was then asked how long after a San Francisco reconciliation he had helped organise between Ms Heard and Mr Depp that he found out she was dating the Tesla boss.
“I don’t know exactly how long, but not long after,” he said.
Some of Mr Carino’s texts with Ms Heard were shared with the court, and in a 2017 one she complained about her break up with Mr Musk.
“Why would you be sad if you were not in love with him to begin with,” Mr Carino replied to her.
And he added: “You told me a thousand times you were just filling space.”
During opening statements at the beginning of the trial, Ms Heard’s lawyers told the jury that Mr Depp had been “obsessed” with Mr Musk, which caused the Hollywood star to smirk in response.
And in his UK libel trial against The Sun newspaper, which he lost in 2020, a text message was brought to light from Mr Depp to Mr Carino in which he bashed the entrepreneur for his relationship with Ms Heard and branded him “Mollusk.”
The defamation trial between Mr Depp and Ms Heard began on Monday 11 April in Fairfax, Virginia following Mr Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2019. Mr Depp is arguing that she defamed him in a December 2018 op-ed published in The Washington Post titled “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change”.
In her 2018 op-ed, Ms Heard wrote that “like many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the time I was of college age. But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim”.
“Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she added at the time.
While Mr Depp isn’t named in the piece, his legal team argues that it contains a “clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser”, which they say is “categorically and demonstrably false”. Mr Depp is seeking damages of “not less than $50m”.
Ms Heard has filed a $100m counterclaim against Mr Depp for nuisance and immunity from his allegations.
