LOS ANGELES — A lawyer asked Katy Perry on Tuesday whether she stood to gain money or anything else from a trial in a long legal fight over a California mansion.
“Justice” was the one-word answer from the singing superstar, former “American Idol” judge and recent astronaut, part of an hour of remote testimony she gave in a Los Angeles courtroom.
In her tense, careful testimony, Perry wouldn’t concede directly that she stood to gain money if she won, but did say, “I stand to lose money if it doesn’t work in my favor.”
She spoke during the second trial in a dispute over a $15 million mansion in upscale Montecito near Santa Barbara that she and former partner Orlando Bloom bought in 2020.
The seller, 85-year-old Carl Westcott, said he was not mentally competent to make the deal and sued to undo it.
Perry’s side — technically the defendant was her business manager, Bernie Gudvi — prevailed in the first trial in 2023. Then Gudvi, representing Perry, countersued over lost rental income brought on by the legal fight and millions in maintenance the house allegedly required. That brought on the current sequel trial.
Westcott’s lawyer, Andrew J. Thomas, often tried to steer the conversation toward Bloom. Superior Court Judge Joseph Lipner ruled that the “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Lord of the Rings” actor does not have to testify because it would be redundant and unnecessary, even though the house is officially owned by a company he set up.
Asked if she had any role in a remodel of the house Bloom oversaw, Perry replied that she acted as “partner and adviser.”
The couple, who split up in July, have a daughter together whose fifth birthday was Tuesday.
When asked about the nature of their partnership, Perry replied, “We’re family for life.”
Perry’s attorney, Eric Rowen, objected to nearly every question by Thomas as irrelevant, including most of the queries about Bloom, which Lipner kept to a minimum.
Rowen objected especially angrily when Perry was asked if she knew that Westcott had entered a mental institution earlier in the legal fight, apparently suggesting the question was an attack for the sake of the media present.
“This is, I don’t want to say unethical, but this is simply an effort to drive a narrative to parties outside this courtroom,” Rowen said. The judge sustained his objection and the question was not allowed.
The judge and lawyers referred to Perry as “Miss Hudson.” Her legal name is Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson.
She’s currently in the middle of an international tour, and has recently been tied to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It wasn’t clear where she was during Tuesday’s questioning.
Thomas asked Perry repeatedly whether she had had enough cash on hand to buy the $15 million mansion outright.
“I could have,” she eventually said, “but I wanted to do a mortgage instead.”
Perry conceded that in the previous trial, she said she intended to live in the mansion, not to rent it out. But renters including the family of actor Chris Pratt are central to this trial. There was discussion of having Pratt testify, but he was not on the final witness list.
There was one light moment at the end of Perry’s testimony when she described some dealings with Westcott and said, “I was pregnant at the time.”
She couldn’t be heard clearly and Lipner said he had heard, “It was private.”
“No, pregnant!” Perry said with a laugh.
Perry’s own lawyer declined to cross-examine her and the judge excused her.
Like the previous trial, this one has no jury, and Lipner will decide the outcome. Perry’s testimony came on the fourth day of proceedings that are expected to go on for two more days.
It’s not the first long public fight Perry has had over a property. She previously sparred in court with an order of nuns who fought to stop the sale of a convent she had bought. She prevailed in that case.
She also testified in a lawsuit that alleged she and her co-writers had stolen key elements of her hit song “Dark Horse” from a Christian musician. She lost at trial, but won on appeal.
