Depp’s exes Ryder and Paradis won’t give evidence at libel trial
JOHNNY DEPP’S former partners Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder will not give evidence in his High Court libel battle with The Sun newspaper.
The two stars were among Depp’s witnesses as he battles claims he is a “wife beater” and had been violent to ex-wife Amber Heard.
Paradis, an actress and singer who is mother to Depp’s two children, was due to give her evidence today, to say the actor was never violent during their 14-year relationship. Ryder, star of Stranger Things, was expected to feature tomorrow, to insist Depp had not been violent during their three-year engagement in the early Nineties.
But the actor’s barrister, David Sherborne, today revealed neither of the women would now give evidence because of the way lawyers for The Sun publisher News Group Newspapers have conducted the case. He told the court: “I don’t need to call Ms Paradis or Ms Ryder. They give evidence about Mr Depp and the suggestion he had ever hit them, which has now not been put.”
Depp is locked in a libel battle over a 2018 article in The Sun by executive editor Dan Wootton which accused the star of violence towards his ex-wife Amber Heard. Heard, 34, claims she
was regularly assaulted during Depp’s drug and drinking binges, but the actor, 57, insists Heard was the abuser and she is orchestrating a “hoax” against him.
Mr Sherborne said Depp told the court last week he had “never hit a woman in his life”. He said The Sun’s barrister, Sasha Wass QC, had not challenged that statement in relation to either Paradis or Ryder.
“In such circumstances there’s no need to reschedule these witnesses,
much as it would be a pleasure to have them here”, he added. Today Sean Bett, Depp’s long-standing bodyguard, is giving evidence about allegations directed at the Hollywood star. He told the court Heard had never complained of being hit by Depp during their relationship.
Both Heard and Depp deny the accusations. The libel trial continues.