‘I hope they both move on’ — Elon Musk weighs in on Depp v Heard

The lengthy celebrity defamation that’s commanded much of our attention over the past number of weeks finally came to a close on Friday as court adjourned and the jury were sent home for the long weekend.

Deliberations are set to continue at 9am on Tuesday as the seven-member jury reach their final verdict on whether Amber Heard’s 2018 Washington Post op-ed constituted defamation of her ex-husband, Johnny Depp.

Once closing arguments were given, podcast host and research scientist Lex Fridman distilled his main takeaways from Depp v Heard into five main bullet points:

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.

Taking this as an opportunity to weigh in on the legal proceedings, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded to the Tweet showing his lack of bias.

“I hope they both move on,” he wrote. “At their best, they are each incredible.”

I hope they both move on. At their best, they are each incredible.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 28, 2022

Though he was initially expected to give testimony as a witness during the course of the defamation trial, Musk did not take to the stand in the end. However, his name was mentioned quite a bit during proceedings, and his relationship with Amber Heard was a source of much attention.

During opening statements, Heard’s legal council said that Depp had been “obsessed” with Musk, and footage was later submitted of Heard’s ‘late night meetings’ with the tech tycoon in the LA penthouse Depp and Heard shared.

Depp’s team later asserted that Musk was granted access to the penthouse on the same night that Heard “presented her battered face to the public”, which he claims was an “elaborate hoax”.

While the timing of their short-lived relationship was a source of some speculation, Heard and Musk were first linked shortly after her split from Depp. Calling it quits in August of 2017, they briefly reunited a year later before officially ending just a month later.

During her testimony, Heard recalls the moment she met Musk at the 2016 Met Gala, an event she had planned to attend with Depp, who she says stood her up. Claiming that she was unable to know whether he would be joining her because he had thrown her phone out of a window during an altercation, she said she “wasn’t sure what was going on”.

Telling the court that she walked the red carpet by herself and “sat next to an empty place setting for Johnny”, Heard met Musk at the event, describing him as a “gentleman”.

The trial also heard testimony from Terence Doughtery of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a charity to which Heard had pledged to donate some of her divorce settlement from 2016.

In Dougherty’s pre-recorded deposition, he said that ACLU had so far received $1.3 million credited to Heard of the $7 million promised to be split between the ACLU and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Dougherty said that Heard’s payments stopped in 2018, and that Musk had indicated in an email that Heard’s pledge would be fulfilled in instalments over 10 years. It is believed that Musk contributed $500,000 on Heard’s behalf.