Heard denies Depp claim of affair with Elon Musk, co-stars

The 34-year-old 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 Depp, 57, 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.

Heard told the court she loved Depp but was terrified of “the monster”, a violent alter ego he became when under the influence of drink or drugs, which she described as the “third party in the relationship”.

Depp denies hitting Heard, and says the claims are a hoax.

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In her witness statement, Heard said Depp had accused her of having affairs with actors with whom she had auditioned or co-starred, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Eddie Redmayne, Jim Sturgess, Kevin Costner, Liam Hemsworth, Billy Bob Thornton and Channing Tatum, and had become enraged with jealousy which led to violence.

“He would taunt me about it – especially when he was drunk or high – and had derogatory nicknames for every one of my male co-stars he considered a sexual threat. For example, Leonardo DiCaprio was ‘pumpkin-head’, Channing Tatum was ‘potato-head’and ‘Jim Turd Sturgess’.”

The court was also 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.

Heard further alleged that Depp would demand to know about any romantic scene in her films and complain about how audiences would get to watch her engaging in sexual acts. He imposed ever tighter restrictions on what nudity or scenes were acceptable.

“I found myself making concessions and turning down work. My salary went down every year I was with him because of all the work I was missing.”

She is due to give evidence over four days and the trial is set to conclude next week, although no ruling is expected immediately.