Pirates of the Caribbean star Depp and his ex-wife Heard are set to face off against one another in court once again on Monday, when a multi-million dollar defamation trial begins in Fairfax County, Virginia.
The former couple’s acrimonious divorce is this time back under the spotlight with Depp suing Heard, alleging she defamed him in an opinion column when she said she was a victim of domestic violence.
While entrepreneur Musk, who was romantically linked to Heard, is on the list of witnesses called on to testify, the New York Post has reported that getting access to the billionaire mogul proved to be quite the laborious task.
This stood in stark contrast to a recent interview given by Musk’s ex, Grimes, who told Vanity Fair that she and the businessman had dwelled in a “very insecure $40,000 house” in Los Angeles as he didn’t wish to live a billionaire lifestyle.
Grimes, born Claire Elise Boucher, told the publication of Musk: “Bro does not live like a billionaire. Bro lives at times below the poverty line. To the point where I was like, can we not live in a very insecure $40,000 house? Where the neighbors, like, film us, and there’s no security, and I’m eating peanut butter for eight days in a row?”
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk, who Forbes reports has a net worth of more than $274 billion, declared in 2021 that he would “own no house” ahead of selling a number of homes he owned in California.
He tweeted in June 2021: “My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase [Texas] that I rent from SpaceX. It’s kinda awesome though.”
Days later, he wrote on the platform, which he recently bought a 9 percent stake in: “Decided to sell my last remaining house. Just needs to go to a large family who will live there. It’s a special place.”
Newsweek has contacted representatives of Musk, Depp, and Heard for comment.
While Musk is on the list of witnesses in Depp’s latest court showdown with Heard, he is by no means the sole celebrity, with screen stars James Franco, Paul Bettany and Ellen Barkin also being called upon.
Representatives of movie studios Disney and Warner Bros. will also be expected to take the stand. According to the New York Post, some witnesses have already given testimony and will therefore not appear in court.
Depp has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Heard, alleging that she defamed him in an op-ed published by the Washington Post in December 2018. The Aquaman star said in the piece that she had been the victim of domestic violence.
While Heard didn’t directly name Depp, the actor said that it was clear he was the one being referred to in the article. The trial is taking place in Virginia due to its proximity to the Post’s headquarters.
Depp and Heard began dating after meeting on the set of their 2011 movie The Rum Diary, going on to exchange nuptials in 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year, with their union officially dissolved in January 2017.
Actress Heard accused Depp of domestic abuse during their divorce proceedings in Los Angeles in 2016.
Depp famously lost a 2020 libel case loss against British tabloid The Sun, which had labeled the actor a “wife-beater” in reference to Heard’s allegations.
As the trial concluded, the overseeing judge found that the U.K. publication’s claims that the actor was abusive to Heard were “substantially true.”
Amid the fallout from the court battle, Depp was “asked to resign” from Fantastic Beasts 3, in which he was set to reprise his role as Gellert Grindelwald. He was subsequently replaced by Mads Mikkelsen.
