Kate Moss testified on Wednesday at Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation trial and quashed a longtime rumor about her relationship with the actor. The supermodel, 48, was called by Depp’s legal team as a rebuttal witness as Heard insinuated Depp pushed Moss down the stairs during the pair’s relationship in the ’90s.
“I had a relationship with [Johnny],” Moss told the jury, appearing virtually from London. She confirmed it was a romantic relationship that lasted from 1994 to 1998.
Depp’s attorney, Ben Chew, asked Moss “What, if anything happened” during a vacation with Depp at the Goldeneye Resort in Jamaica.
“We were leaving the room and Johnny left the room before I did,” Moss explained, noting there had been a “rainstorm” on the island.
“As I left the room I slid down the stairs and I hurt my back,” she continued. “And I screamed because I was in — I didn’t know what had happened to me and I was in pain. He came running back to help me and carried me to my room and got me medical attention.”
“Did Mr. Depp push you in any way down the stairs?” Chew asked.
“No,” Moss replied.
“During the course of your relationship did he ever push you down any stairs?” Chew followed up.
“No,” Moss replied. “He never pushed me, kicked me or threw me down any stairs.”
It’s the first time Moss has testified in any kind of court proceeding as she was not part of Depp’s libel trial in the U.K.
“So Johnny Depp didn’t abuse Kate Moss. That makes him 1 for 2 in the abuse column,” a source close to Heard tells Yahoo Entertainment. “But, to date, he’s 0 for 1 in the courtroom on the central issue in this case back when he lost the same exact case in England. And when the jury deliberates over the singular issue in this case — whether Amber Heard can exercise her right of Freedom of Speech — he’ll be 0 for 2, no matter how much his lawyers try to distract and divert the jury’s attention.”
A legal expert explained to Yahoo Entertainment that Heard “opened the door” for Depp’s team to bring “Kate on as a witness.”
Heard testified about a March 2015 fight with Depp. She admitted to hitting the actor in the face but said it was to protect her sister, Whitney.
“I see my little sister with her back to the staircase … I don’t hesitate, I don’t wait, I just instantly think of Kate Moss and stairs and I swung at him,” Heard said. “I hadn’t landed a blow and for the first time, I hit him, like actually hit him, square in the face. He didn’t push my sister down the stairs.”
Celebrity lawyer Chris Melcher, partner of Walzer Melcher, explains, “There is a right to use force in the defense of another, if there is a reasonable belief that force is needed, and a reasonable amount of force is used to overcome the threat.”
It’s unclear who was the aggressor as witnesses for Heard and Depp tell very different stories.
MORE: Amber Heard and Jason Momoa’s “lack of chemistry” made “Aquaman” editing “difficult”
