Kate Moss denies Johnny Depp Stairs rumor in defamation war with Amber Heard

On Wednesday, Kate Moss joined the chaos at the trial in which Johnny Depp faced Amber Heard on allegations of brutal domestic violence and defamation when she was called to the witness stand by Depp’s team via video link first thing in the morning.

Moss quickly – and briefly – denied a rumor that Depp pushed her down the stairs, which Heard referenced during the actress’ own testimony.

“He never pushed me, kicked me, or threw me down a flight of stairs,” Moss said.

The supermodel, an ex-girlfriend of Depp, was called in as the actor refuted Heard’s counterclaims against him, just before final jury arguments and deliberations were expected in the case. It’s a turn of events that some legal watchers suggested to Heard, mentioning the ugly rumor from the 90s couple’s past in her own testimony earlier this month: that Depp had pushed Moss down a flight of stairs.

Moss told the court on Wednesday that she actually slipped down the stairs and injured her back during a then-couple’s trip to Jamaica – and Depp came to her rescue. “I was screaming because … I didn’t know what happened to me and I was in pain and he came running back to help me and carried me to my room and gave me medical attention,” she said.

Depp’s lawsuit alleges that Heard “devastated” his career after she wrote in 2018 Washington Post Comment that didn’t name Depp but described herself as a survivor of domestic violence – two years after she obtained a restraining order against the actor.

Heard has sued Depp, claiming he and his legal team launched a “smear campaign” against her after her comment — including allegations by a former attorney who called her domestic violence allegations a “hoax.”

During testimony, Heard claimed that she punched Depp in a fight at her Los Angeles penthouse in March 2015, and that she did so to try to protect her sister, Whitney Henriquez, from being pushed down a flight of stairs by Depp . “I immediately think of Kate Moss and stairs in my head,” Heard testified.

The Moss-Depp pairing summed up a snapshot in the ’90s: Moss, the spooky face of Calvin Klein ads, and Depp, the savage hero of Edward with the scissor hands and What does Gilbert Grape eat?. Moss and Depp, rising stars in neighboring fields, would often show up looking like a perfect album cover at movie premieres, nightclubs, and famous friends’ birthday parties—”the chicest, druggiest couple since Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg,” wrote author Maureen Callahan in a biography the fashion of the 90s, Champagne Supernovas.

In public, they left a trail of paparazzi images for a tumultuous few years from 1994 to 1998. Privately, they had an intense, whirlwind romance that’s sparked rumors of more than just mood swings.

Depp was arrested in September 1994 for vandalizing a hotel room in downtown New York City. A police officer who was called to the scene at 5:30 a.m. testified to his Manhattan arraignment that they found him “sitting there, cool and calmly smoking a cigarette” while Moss was crouched in the rubble nearby — “everywhere.” Glass and furniture overturned and broken table legs,” the officer said.

Amid the tabloid coverage of her life as a non-stop party, a rumor surfaced that Depp had pushed Moss down the stairs. The alleged incident was never documented in the same way as the destruction of the hotel room. But it persisted and surfaced in the defamation trial.

Heard’s mention of Moss sparked a small celebration at Depp’s lawyers’ table: Attorney Benjamin Chew turned and grinned at his colleagues.

A “staircase incident” in Depp and Heard’s own relationship was the subject of testimony from multiple quarters, including Heard, Depp, Henriquez, and Depp’s bodyguard.

It was also notable that it was the incident that produced the only independent eyewitness account of Depp hitting Heard – by Heard’s younger sister Henriquez. She testified that Depp “grabbed Heard by the hair with one hand and repeatedly slapped her in the face with the other.”