British model Kate Moss on Wednesday appeared in the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard libel case by video link on behalf of her former boyfriend.
Lawyers for Depp carefully asked Moss where she lived, where she was and did she have a relationship with Depp, all which she answered.
Then they got to the point — an accusation that the actor had pushed her down a flight of stairs.
“Miss Moss, did there come a time when you, while you and Mr Depp were a couple, that the two of you took a vacation together to the Golden Eye resort in Jamaica?" Depp's lawyer asked.
"What, if anything, happened when you were in Jamaica with Mr Depp?”
“I we [sic] were leaving the room … there had been a rainstorm and as I left the room, I slid down the stairs and I hurt my back,” Moss testified.
"And I screamed because I was in … because I didn't know what happened to me and I was in pain.”
Depp's lawyer asked: “During the course of your relationship, did he ever push you down any stairs?”
“No,” Moss said.
Focusing solely on the staircase accusations, Depp’s attorney asked no further questions.
Moss was was on the stand for about one minute and spoke a total of 108 words. Heard's lawyers declined to cross-examine.
Moss has never publicly accused Depp of being abusive during their relationship, but the former couple were often seen shouting at each other in public.
An incident in 1994 led to Depp’s arrest for criminal mischief after trashing the presidential suite at the luxury Mark Hotel in New York City. Police were called after reports that a fight broke out between Depp and Moss.
Eileen Perez, the police officer who responded to a call about the disturbance, explained to The New York Times that when she and her colleagues opened the hotel room door, “There was Depp sitting there, smoking a cigarette, cool and calm.”
Moss was with him, Ms Perez said, and “there was glass all over the place and furniture upside down and broken table legs”.
Depp told the officers that "an angry armadillo had been hiding in the closet" and that the destruction of the room was the result of his attempts to ward off the creature.
He was taken into custody and released a few hours later. The actor paid the hotel $10,000 for the damages. The armadillo was never found.
Moss has never filed an abuse claim against Depp.
When asked about the incident in 2017 by Esquire magazine, Depp replied, “You gotta have an outlet available, stimulus, know what I mean?
"But I wasn’t embarrassed about it then, and I’m certainly not embarrassed about it now. I mean, you know, I was in a bad mood, I assaulted a hotel room. I broke a lot of stuff and it felt good.”
After her relationship with Depp ended, Moss dated a string of musicians, including Antony Langdon, the guitarist in the British Rock band Spacehog, Pete Doherty of the Babyshambles and Jamie Hince of the Kills.
Moss began dating Doherty after meeting at her birthday party. They quickly became paparazzi favourites and were frequently snapped stumbling in and out of London pubs and clubs.
Their rocky romance ended when Doherty failed to complete a stint in rehabilitation in Arizona.
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
Honeymoonish
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In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
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- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
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RESULT
Shabab Al Ahli Dubai 0 Al Ain 6
Al Ain: Caio (5', 73'), El Shahat (10'), Berg (65'), Khalil (83'), Al Ahbabi (90' 2)
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Coal Black Mornings
Brett Anderson
Little Brown Book Group
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Look north
BBC business reporters, like a new raft of government officials, are being removed from the national and international hub of London and surely the quality of their work must suffer.
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Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Best Academy: Ajax and Benfica
Best Agent: Jorge Mendes
Best Club : Liverpool
Best Coach: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
Best Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker
Best Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Best Partnership of the Year Award by SportBusiness: Manchester City and SAP
Best Referee: Stephanie Frappart
Best Revelation Player: Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid and Portugal)
Best Sporting Director: Andrea Berta (Atletico Madrid)
Best Women's Player: Lucy Bronze
Best Young Arab Player: Achraf Hakimi
Kooora – Best Arab Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)
Kooora – Best Arab Player: Abderrazak Hamdallah (Al-Nassr FC, Saudi Arabia)
Player Career Award: Miralem Pjanic and Ryan Giggs
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
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