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Johnny Depp Trial Digs Into Amber Heard’s Relationship With Elon Musk

The details of Musk and Heard’s relationship were detailed in a text message exchange with her former agent.
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Image: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Details about Amber Heard’s breakup with Elon Musk were the subject of today’s testimony in Johnny Depp’s defamation case against the actress, which has largely been focused on allegations of brutal abuse.  

The details read in Wednesday’s proceedings—the 10th day of the trial—show how seemingly every aspect of Heard and Musk’s personal life are being dissected by the court. According to text messages read aloud in court today, actress Heard said dating Elon Musk was just “filling space.”

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It’s the latest in a long line of revelations from the defamation case Johnny Depp is pursuing against Heard, his former wife. Musk, the world’s richest man and the soon-to-be owner of Twitter, and Heard dated in 2017 and 2018 while she was divorcing Depp.

The details about their relationship came up when Depp’s lawyers aired the testimony of Heard’s former agent Christian Carino. In the video clip, the lawyer was questioning Carino about texts he and Heard exchanged in 2017 when she and Deep were divorcing and she was dating Elon Musk. Every piece of testimony in the case has also been dissected by the masses on the internet, with much of the sympathy online seemingly going to Depp, and much of the testimony being used to attack Heard on Twitter, in internet comments, and on Reddit.

According to Depp’s lawyer, Heard texted Carino: “Dealing with breakup. I hate when things go public. See I’m so sad.”

Carino said the text was about breaking up with Musk. “Seems like a press release,” Carino texted back. “You weren’t in love with him and you told me a thousand times you were just filling space.”

“I’m saying: ‘Why would you be sad if you weren’t in love with him?’” Carino explained when the lawyer pressed him for an explanation of the exchange.

Heard and Depp are in court because Depp launched a defamation suit against Heard for $50 million in response to a 2018 Washington Post op-ed that Heard wrote about her experiences with domestic abuse. While Heard didn’t name Depp in her piece, Depp’s team maintains that it was about him and thus cost Depp his career. Heard has since filed a counterclaim for $100 million in damages, which the jury will also consider. Both deny allegations of abuse.