Actress Amber Heard appears to have deactivated her Twitter account after Elon Musk’s $44Bln takeover of the social media platform last week. Her Instagram* account is said to be still active, with the celebrity's last post dated 1 June, when she commented on the defamation case that she lost.
The Tesla chief executive and SpaceX boss, whom the 'Aquaman' actress previously dated, sealed the deal to buy the microblogging website on 27 October. Fans of Heard noticed some time later that her Twitter account was no longer active and speculated on what had prompted actor Johnny Depp's ex-wife to quit the platform. Some recalled that she had faced a huge backlash from Depp fans online for her accusations against him. Others suggested she might still have "something to hide".
Musk and Heard reportedly first struck up an acquaintance on the set of 'Machete Kills' directed by Robert Rodriguez in 2012. Heard was playing the lead in the film, and Musk had a cameo appearance. After Heard’s divorce from the "Pirates of the Caribbean” star Depp was finalized, she reportedly became romantically involved with Musk. The billionaire tech guru was allegedly already single at the time after his second divorce from wife, English actress Talulah Riley, in October 2015. Musk and Riley had gone through their first divorce in 2012, only to remarry again.
Musk’s name cropped up when Depp sued British tabloid The Sun for libel in a case he eventually lost. The newspaper had referred to him as a “wife beater” in a headline. At the time, the Golden Globe Award-winning actor accused the world’s richest man of having an affair with Heard while she was still married to him. Musk allegedly embarked upon a "three-way affair" with Heard and model and actress Cara Delevingne at Depp and Heard's Los Angeles flat in 2016, according to court documents cited at the time. Depp was said to be away filming in Australia.
The claims were subsequently denied by Musk, who insisted that Delevingne was a friend of his. He also admitted having dated Heard after she had filed for divorce from Depp. The romantic relationship with Heard was also confirmed by Musk to outlets in 2016.
Depp was awarded more than $10Mln in punitive and compensatory damages on 1 June 2011, after the jury in Fairfax, Virginia, unanimously ruled in the Hollywood actor’s favor in his defamation lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard. Depp, 58, sued Heard, 36, over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post (printed in Fairfax County) where she alleged she was the victim of domestic abuse.
Throughout the months preceding the trial, Heard faced a backlash on social media from the actor's fans. After Depp's career took a hit over the accusations, they petitioned for Warner Bros to have Heard fired from Aquaman 2. They also threatened to boycott Fantastic Beasts 3 because Mads Mikkelsen was given the role of Grindelwald after Depp was kicked out of the movie franchise.
*Meta, Facebook, and Instagram are banned in Russia over extremist activities.