After six weeks of testimony that has captivated the globe, Elon Musk has finally spoken out about his ex-girlfriend Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s high-profile defamation lawsuit.
On Saturday, only one day after the case was submitted to the jury, Tesla CEO Elon Musk turned to Twitter. The outcome should be known next week.
Musk wrote, ‘I hope they both move on.’ ‘They’re all amazing when they’re at their best.’
Musk and Heard began dating around the time of her breakup from Depp in May 2016, and they broke up in August of the following year. They reconnected and dated for a short time.
Musk’s tweet on Saturday was in response to MIT research scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman who tweeted his takeaways from the trial.
‘My takeaways from Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard trial: 1. Fame is one hell of a drug (for some). 2. Psychiatrists & lawyers come in drastically varying levels of skill. 3. Lying to millions of people is something humans are capable of. 4. Love can be messy. 5. Mega pint of wine.’
For six weeks, bombshell testimony focused on details of alleged abuse that Heard says she suffered at the hands of Depp. Heard has outlined more than a dozen specific instances where she says she was assaulted by Depp.
Depp has denied any physical or sexual abuse, and says Heard concocted the claims to destroy Depp’s reputation. Depp’s legions of online fans have focused on their belief that Heard has been untruthful, and that that will determine the outcome.
But the case itself is a defamation claim.
Depp, 58, sued his ex-wife Heard for $50 million for an op-ed piece she wrote for the Washington Post in 2018 in which she claimed to a ‘public figure representing domestic abuse.’
His team argues that she was the abuser and have provided evidence of recordings of the actress where she admits to hitting Depp.
They also say she threw a bottle at him which cut off his finger, forcing him to have multiple surgeries to repair it.
Heard then filed a $100 million countersuit against the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star, stating that the 2020 ‘Waldman statements’ given to the media by Depp’s former lawyer Adam Waldman claimed her allegations to be an ‘abuse hoax.’
The jury began deliberations at 2:57 p.m. and two hours later were sent home for the weekend by Judge Penney Azcarate. Jurors will reconvene at 9 a.m. Tuesday after the Memorial day holiday weekend. A verdict in the case is expected next week.
Depp’s lawyers tried to subpoena Musk to grill him over allegations he had an affair with Heard during her 18-month marriage to Depp. But Musk, a non-resident of Virginia where the trial is being held, cannot be forced to attend proceedings at the Fairfax County Circuit Court, either in person or via video-link.
Musk has made no secret of the fact he dated Heard on and off for several years but he’s always maintained the relationship only became romantic months after her split from Depp.
Heard testified last week about meeting Musk on the Met Gala red carpet in 2016 after Depp ‘stood her up’.
She said: ‘I didn’t recognize him until we started talking. He’d reminded me we’d met once before. We spoke on the red carpet in the waiting line. He seemed like a real gentleman.’
Heard said she became friends with Musk after that. She began dating the Tesla founder soon after and by August the following year they had broken up.
Last month Depp’s former agent Christian Carino told the court about emails sent to him by Heard after she broke up with Elon Musk.
Carino, a talent agent with mega agency CAA and Lady Gaga’s ex-fiance, said that Heard began dating Musk ‘immediately after Johnny Depp.’
In an email on August 7, 2017, Heard told Carino: ‘Dealing with breakup. I hate when things go public. See I’m so sad.’
Carino replied to Heard: ‘You weren’t in love with him. You told me 1,000 times you were just feeling space.’
Depp’s team also sought in vain to question Musk over suggestions he paid $500,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union on Heard’s behalf.
In the wake of their 2016 divorce Heard famously vowed to give away her entire $7 million settlement, splitting it equally between the ACLU and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Depp’s lawyers subpoenaed both organizations to ask how much they actually received and were provided with paperwork suggesting the hospital got $100,000, rather than the promised $3.5 million.
Documents supplied by the ACLU suggested Heard donated $350,000 on top of $100,000 that came from Depp on her behalf. Another $500,000 came from someone named ‘Elon’, according to Depp’s lawyers.
In bombshell testimony last week, Heard admitted to failing to pay her pledged $3.5million donation to the ACLU after claiming to have made the contribution.
Heard said it was Depp suing her that kept her from fulfilling her pledge to donate her entire $7million divorce settlement.
However, Heard has claimed several times – including under oath in Depp’s 2020 libel case in the UK – that she had donated the entire settlement to charity.
Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez also argued yesterday that Heard had the money for months before the lawsuit, yet failed to donate the money as she promised.
The disclosure led to accusations that Heard misled the public when talking about the donations on talk shows and may have lied under oath.
Vasquez also alleged that Heard had purposely not donated the money to charity so she could keep as much as possible for herself – a claim vehemently denied by Heard.
Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft asked the star why she accepted a $7m settlement from Depp.
She said: ‘I didn’t care about the money. I was told if I didn’t agree to a number it could be overturned, we would never settle. I took far less than what they were offering and what I was entitled to.’
Heard said she donated the money to charity because she was ‘never interested in Johnny’s money’.
She added: ‘I just wanted my safety and my future and he compromised that….I wanted him to leave me alone. I’ve been saying that since 2016.’
While Musk refused to testify at this month’s trial, he did have a brief cameo at London’s High Court last year when Depp sued News Group Newspapers over a 2018 article in The Sun that described him as ‘wife beater’.
The court was read a text message from Depp to a friend that made an apparent reference to Musk, reading: ‘Brother, I’m sorry to even ask but she sucked mollusk’s crooked d*** and he gave her some sh**y lawyers.
‘I have no mercy left of what I thought was love for this gold-digging, low level, dime-a-dozen mushy, pointless, flappy fish market.’
The texts were read again for the court in Fairfax, Virginia this week at a trial that has become a circus with bizarre testimony and daily antics fueling an endless supply of memes and attracting massive crowds.
As the trial entered its final days this week, devoted fans lined up outside the courthouse for some of their last chances to sit in on the legal drama.
Most of the fans could be seen flaunting their support of the 58-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean’ star, holding up signs calling for ‘Justice for Johnny.’ A handful of supporters showed up for Heard.
All of them are hoping to get their hands on a wristband, which granted them entry into the courtroom spectacle that has blown up social media.
Throughout the six-week long ‘circus’ of a trial, Heard’s attorneys have tried to paint Depp as an abuser and called in a psychiatrist on Monday to testify about his behavior.
But online, many of Depp’s supporters have vilified Heard, with some even taking to WebMD and Google Reviews to slam the psychiatrist, who claimed Depp has the ‘behaviors of someone’ who is abusive despite never examining the actor himself.
On Thursday, Heard broke down on the stand as she told the courtroom how Depp’s ‘smear campaign’ against her has upended her life.
Asked by her own attorney how she has suffered as a result of Depp’s statement, Heard said, ‘I am harassed, humiliated, threatened every single day.
‘Even just walking into this courtroom, sitting here in front of the world, having the worst parts of my life used to humiliate me. People want to kill me and they tell me so every day.
People want to put my baby in the microwave and they tell me that. Johnny threatened, promised me that if I ever left him he’d make me think of him every single day I lived.’
Heard has a one-year-old daughter, Oonagh Paige Heard, who she welcomed via surrogate. Heard has not publicly revealed who the father is.
Taking a jab at Depp, who has been seen laughing, smirking and making jokes throughout the trial, Heard said, ‘I’m not sitting in this courtroom snickering. I’m not sitting in this courtroom laughing and making snide jokes. This is horrible, this painful and this is humiliating for any human being to go through. Perhaps it’s easy to go forget that, I’m a human being.’
‘I don’t deserve this. The attacks on me the campaign that Johnny has elicited millions of people to do on his behalf, torture me,’ she added.