Amber Heard testified that she donated $250,000 to a children's art program. The charity's CEO said the money came from Elon Musk.
Amber Heard testified in her defamation trial about donating $250,000 to the charity Art of Elysium.
The charity's CEO said in a deposition that it received a $250,000 payment in Heard's name.
But the CEO said they understood that the money actually came from Elon Musk.
A CEO of an art charity that Amber Heard testified to having donated $250,000 to says the money actually came from Elon Musk.
This is the second charity official to say they believe an anonymous donation made in Heard's name came from Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO whom Heard dated immediately after separating from Johnny Depp in 2016.
Previously, a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union said the organization received a $350,000 donation in Heard's name from an account they believed to be associated with Musk.
Heard is currently fighting a lawsuit from her ex-husband, Depp, who has accused her of defamation, saying she ruined his reputation and career with fake domestic-violence claims. Heard says that she was a victim domestic violence, and spent several days on the stand describing multiple incidents in which she said Depp physically and sexually assaulted her.
Depp's legal team sought to undercut Heard's credibility on Tuesday when they suggested a donation she said she had made on the stand was actually paid by Musk.
Heard said on the stand that she donated $250,000 to the Art of Elysium, a children's arts charity.
But a rebuttal witness for Depp's legal team called that statement into question on Tuesday. In a prerecorded deposition from March 3, 2022, Jennifer Howell, the CEO of the Art of Elysium, said that the organization only received one donation made in Heard's name — a payment of $250,000 from an anonymous donor that they understood to be Musk.
Heard's credibility on her charitable donations was questioned earlier in the trial. Depp's legal team provided evidence showing that Heard failed to follow through on a public commitment to donate her full $7 million divorce settlement from Depp to two charities — the ACLU and Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
On Tuesday, a prerecorded deposition from Candie Davidson-Goldbronn, a representative of Children's Hospital Los Angeles, said the organization only ever received $250,000 directly from Heard, in addition to a $100,000 payment made by Depp's money manager as part of her divorce settlement. That's far less than the $3.5 million she had pledged to the organization. The representative said they followed up with Heard's contact about whether to expect any future payments on that pledge and never received a response.
Earlier in the trial, a representative of the ACLU said the organization only received three payments made in Heard's name, totaling $950,000. They said only one came directly from Heard, while another was from Depp's money manager, and the third was believed to be from Musk.
Heard said that she planned to pay the two charities in installments over a period of time, but had to stop payments when Depp sued her in 2019.
Musk did not immediately return Insider's request for comment on Tuesday. Representatives for Heard declined to comment.
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