By Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) – American actress Amber Heard denied in court on Tuesday that she had an affair with Tesla chief Elon Musk, or anyone else, while she was married to Johnny Depp.
Heard, 34, is giving evidence at London’s High Court on behalf of the Sun newspaper whose publisher, News Group Newspapers, is being sued by her former husband Depp for libel over a 2018 article which labelled him a “wife beater”.
She says the 57-year-old “Pirates of the Caribbean” star attacked her on at least 14 occasions, threatening many times to kill her, and that he slapped, punched, head-butted and kicked her during violent, jealous outbursts brought on by excessive drinking or drug-taking.
Depp denies hitting Heard, and says the claims are a hoax.
In her witness statement, Heard said Depp had accused her of having affairs with numerous co-stars and had become enraged with jealousy which led to violence.
The court was told that Heard had exchanged text messages with Musk in May 2016 after she says Depp had become violent, injured her eye and cheek by throwing a phone at her, and smashed up their penthouse.
Asked whether she had had relationships with anyone else, Heard said: “No, not that that matters much”.
She said she had not been in communication with the Tesla chief until 2016.
The court was also shown closed circuit TV footage of Heard taking actor James Franco up to the penthouse the following evening.
“He was saying to me ‘Oh my god, what happened to you?’,” Heard told the court.
The judge, Andrew Nicol, told Depp’s lawyer Eleanor Laws he did not find such evidence about jealousy helpful in reaching his final conclusion.
Laws said staff at the penthouse and other friends had told the court they had not seen any marks or injuries in the days after the incident.
Heard said she did have visible injuries. She is due to give evidence over four days and the trial is set to conclude next week, although no ruling is expected immediately.
(Reporting by Michael Holden, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
