Depp’s ex ‘drank vast amounts of wine daily’
As Depp sues over ‘wife beater’ claim, his ex’s PA will tell court:
EVIDENCE that Amber Heard ‘drank vast quantities of red wine each night’ during her relationship with Johnny Depp can be heard by a libel trial, a judge ruled yesterday.
The actress’s former assistant made the accusation in response to Miss Heard’s insistence that she was not a heavy drinker.
Details of her alleged drinking habits emerged during the preliminary stages of a High Court battle between Depp and his ex-wife over whether the Pirates Of The Caribbean star was an abusive husband.
Depp, 56, is suing The Sun newspaper and its executive editor Dan Wootton for calling him a ‘wife beater’ in an article in April 2018.
Miss Heard is the paper’s key witness in what is expected to be a 15-day trial in July.
Yesterday, in a preliminary ruling, Mr Justice Nicol gave Depp permission to put forward evidence from Miss Heard’s former personal assistant Kate James. The judge said her testimony was potentially relevant to counter Miss Heard’s claims she was not a big drinker.
In her witness statement, Miss Heard, 34, claims: ‘Johnny says I often drank more than him, and that I am a regular/heavy drug user. That’s just not true, although of course I drank more than him durgown, the brief periods when he was sober. If he was sober, then to be respectful, I would usually check with him that it was okay for me to drink wine in front of him. He would say yes and often insisted on pouring my wine.’
In response, Miss James said Miss Heard ‘drank vast quantities of red wine each night’, said the judge.
But he threw out as ‘irrelevant or disproportionate’ other allegations made by Miss James, who worked for Miss Heard from 2012 to 2015. These included claims about the actress sending her ‘abusive messages’ on her birthday, humiliating her ‘in the presence of the handyman’ and ‘tipping off paparazzi’.
Other allegations, including that Miss Heard used drugs including magic mushrooms, ecstasy and one similar to amphetamine, were also ruled inadmissible.
Mr Justice Nicol has allowed Depp to rely on evidence from two former girlfriends – actress Vanessa Paradis and Hollywood star Winona Ryder – to help him counter allegations he was a violent ‘monster’.
Former pop star Miss Paradis, 47, who has two children with Depp, insisted he was never abusive to her in the 14 years they were together, while Miss Ryder, 48, says Depp was ‘never, never violent towards me’. The case is due to start on July 7, with Miss Heard willing to fly from Los Angeles to London to give evidence in person even though she will have to spend 14 days in quarantine to comply with new coronavirus rules.
Depp strenuously denies being a wife beater, as well as allegations that his two-year marriage to Miss Heard was characterised by drug-fuelled violent rages in which he routinely hit her or smashed things, the court has heard.
On one occasion, he was accused of tearing off her nighting grabbing her breasts and trying to choke her while also mocking her, all of which he denies. Mr Justice Nicol has previously ruled that parts of Miss Heard’s evidence, relating to allegations of sexual violence, will be heard in private.
Miss Heard and Depp met on the set of 2011 comedy The Rum Diary. They married in LA in 2015 and settled their divorce out of court in 2017, a year after she obtained a restraining order against him.
Last night a spokesman for Miss Heard said: ‘As the judgment today shows, Mr Depp’s team has been attempting to introduce irrelevant evidence. This is one of the defining characteristics of their strategy – to adduce irrelevant evidence designed to smear Ms Heard and distract from the facts so that people do not focus on Mr Depp’s behaviour.’
Adam Waldman, Mr Depp’s US lawyer, said: ‘The Sun attempted to exclude the truth...we are delighted that we will be able to show Amber Heard’s history of lies and frauds to get what she wants.’
‘Sent abusive messages’