Johnny Depp suffers major blow as witness is dismissed after admitting to watching clips of Amber Heard defamation trial online

• A witness called by Johnny Depp's legal team was dismissed from the stand on Thursday.
• Depp has accused ex-wife Amber Heard of defamation. The case is being tried in Virginia.

The judge overseeing Johnny Depp's defamation trial against Amber Heard dismissed one of his witnesses on Thursday after the witness admitted to watching clips of the trial online.

Georgina Deuters — who also goes by Gina Deuters and is the wife of one of Depp's longtime employees and collaborators, Stephen Deuters — was called to the stand by Depp's legal team on Thursday, the third day of testimony in the trial.

Depp is suing Heard, claiming she ruined his career by insinuating that he physically abused her in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed she wrote. Heard responded with a countersuit claiming the actor assaulted her on 10 occasions throughout their relationship.

Deuters, however, was dismissed from the stand shortly after describing how Heard offered her MDMA at Heard and Depp's wedding in 2015.

Heard's lawyers then asked for a conference with Judge Penney Azcarate, who's presiding over the trial in Fairfax County court in Virginia. After speaking with the attorneys, the judge told jurors to leave the room, and then asked Deuters whether she watched any of the trial testimony prior to taking the stand.

"I've seen clips of it online, yeah," Deuters said.

Azcarate then told Deuters she was dismissed and could leave the courthouse. She said she'd strike Deuters's testimony from the record and that the jury will be told not to take what she said into consideration when they eventually deliberate.

"The court is striking the testimony of Georgina 'Gina' Deuters from the record in its entirety," Azcarate told jurors when they returned.

Depp's drug usage has become a focus point

Before Deuters was excused she spoke about how she and her husband first met Depp in 2004, after working on his film "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." She said her husband started working exclusively with Depp from then on, first as an assistant and later as a writer and producer. Stephen Deuters still works for Depp.

Deuters said the first time she met Heard was while she and Depp filmed "The Rum Diary." By the time she next saw Heard a couple of years later, during a premiere for the movie in London, Depp and Heard were together.

She recalled hanging out with her husband, Depp, and Heard on another occasion after that premiere and feeling that Heard was being standoffish with her.

Deuters said she was excited to spend time with Heard "because she was Johnny's new girl," but said Heard "didn't really engage" or "acknowledge" Deuters and her husband.

"Which is fine," she said. "We're staff."

Deuters said they connected more when they both spent time visiting their partners on the set of "The Lone Ranger" soon afterward.

Deuters says she and Heard went shopping at vintage stores together and got coffee while on location for that film.

She said Heard was "really lovely, really sweet" and that they would "get along really well."

"She's very charming," Deuters said.

Deuters said Heard opened up to her on that trip about relationship frustrations.

"I remember going for a coffee and she seemed frustrated. I don't think Johnny was ready to go public with their relationship yet and I think that was frustrating for her," Deuters recalled.

Another incident that stuck out to her was a dinner during "The Lone Ranger" press tour. Deuters said she noticed Depp hiding a flute of champagne under the table during the dinner and secretly taking sips of it throughout the evening.

"I just noticed she kind of saw that and was quite angry about it. I couldn't hear what was said but he seemed to get a telling off, which was kind of weird, like telling off a child," Deuters said.

In her response to Depp's lawsuit, Heard said that Depp regularly assaulted her, often while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, saying he would become a "monster."

The scope of Depp's drug use has become an issue in the trial. Both Deuters and Depp's sister, who testified at the start of the trial, have appeared to downplay any drug or alcohol problem on Depp's part.

Deuters said she saw Depp drink and do drugs — specifically, marijuana and cocaine — in the nearly two decades she's known him. She said Depp "holds his liquor well" and that she's never seen him "drunk drunk." She said drinking made him "more jovial" and she never saw much of a difference in his personality when he took cocaine, which she estimated she witnessed him take about 20 times, during "celebratory" occasions.

Following Deuters, lawyers for Depp played a deposition video from David Kipper, a doctor who treated Depp for substance abuse. He said Depp told him he became addicted to opioids after a medical procedure, and sought help to treat his drug addiction and detoxify.

Heard sometimes administered drugs used to help detoxify Depp, Kipper testified.