Amber Heard’s close friend Eve Barlow was reportedly kicked out of the Fairfax, Virginia courtroom last week amid the actress’ ongoing defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Depp sued Heard for $50 million following a December 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post in which she seemingly accused him of domestic abuse, despite not naming him. She has now countersued the actor for $100 million.
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A source familiar with the situation told ET Canada that despite rumours they are dating, Heard and Barlow are simply friends, and Barlow was there to provide support.
The source also denied allegations that Barlow was live-tweeting the trial, and that she had simply tweeted a response to a BBC headline.
Additionally, the source said that contrary to rumours, Barlow was not passing notes to Heard. Rather, the actress had given her friend a note to pass to her assistant.
When Barlow was moved to the back row of the court, she did indeed violate the court order not to use her phone, but the source said she was simply finishing up an email to the legal team that she’d already started, not tweeting.
According to Page Six, Barlow, who is the former deputy editor of NME and a New York Magazine contributor, was removed from the trial for texting and tweeting from the front row.
The publication pointed out the seating area was usually reserved for legal counsel, as well as revealing the journalist had “allegedly been acting like part of the actress’ legal team.”
She was said to have brought up a social media post from Depp-friendly witness Gina Deuters, claiming it was a post from the current trial.
However, it’s since been reported that it was actually one she shared during Depp’s previous trial against The Sun newspaper.
Deuters, who is the wife of Depp’s longtime employee and collaborator, Stephen Deuters, then admitted she’d seen clips of the trial online prior to giving her testimony, so has now been dismissed from the record.
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Depp’s lawyers then asked for Barlow to be permanently banned from the courtroom and the judge approved.
A source told Page Six, “Amber had her closest journalist friend sit front and center — with her legal team — at the trial, live-tweeting, texting and posting information.
“Eve Barlow seems to think she’s part of Amber’s legal team. Depp’s lawyers finally had enough and had her barred from the courtroom.”
According to court transcripts, Azcarate said, “She was tweeting live from my courtroom… and I know the deputies took her out because she was texting. That’s against the court order. Ms. Barlow is not coming back into the courtroom during this trial.”
ET Canada has contacted Heard’s rep for comment.
The trial is expected to take six weeks, with testimonies expected from James Franco, Paul Bettany and Elon Musk. Both Heard and Depp, who has denied abusing Heard, will also take the stand.