One of the most publicized and high-profile celebrity divorce cases was that of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. Their divorce gained prominence in 2018 due to Heard’s op-ed in The Washington Post. In the article, she indirectly accused her estranged husband of domestic violence. In 2020, Johnny Depp filed a libel case against ‘The Sun’ for calling him ‘a wife beater’. The actor lost the case, and then, in April 2022, he filed a $50 million defamation case against Amber in the US with reference to her 2018 article.
The trial took place in Fairfax County, Virginia. During the six weeks long trial, media gave attention to it where Amber Heard countersued Johnny Depp for $100 million. It was the most controversial celebrity case where character assassination, heart wrenching and violent accussations, and which hunting happened. In June 2022, Johnny Depp won the case with $10.35 million in punitive damages and compensation. They demanded retrials, challenging the court’s decision even after the settlement. But, now, both the parties have agreed to close the doors on the case.
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Why Amber Heard Wants To Settle The Defamation Case?
In July 2022, Amber Heard appealed in the Virginia court for the retrial of the defamation case which Johnny Depp won. The actress’ attorneys claimed “mistrial”. They reasoned that one of the jurors was not eligible to be on the jury panel. But, the judge Penny Azcarate refuted the appeal for retrial. In another instance, in December 2022, they appealed for a reversal or retrial due to non-consideration of medical professionals’ report of Depp’s abuse towards the ‘Aquaman’ actress.
However, Amber, on December 19th, 2022, took to social media to announce that she will be settling the defamation case once and for all. On Instagram, she posted a statement highlighting the reasons for settling the case. She wrote, “It’s important for me to say that I never chose this. I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew was destroyed”. The actress got a compensation of $2 million.
Amber Heard had a parallel trial online where people mocked and vilified her for her actions. She wrote in the statement, “The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimized when they come forward. Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to”. She also admitted losing faith in the American legal system where her trial served as “entertainment and social media fodder”.
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The Actress In Her Statement Compared The US And UK Trial
Amber Heard agreed to pay $1 million to Johnny Depp to close the case. Depp’s legal team issued a statement saying, “We are pleased to formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp, who made clear throughout this process that his priority was about bringing the truth to light. The payment of $1M—which Mr. Depp is pledging and will (actually) donate to charities—reinforces Ms. Heard’s acknowledgement of the conclusion of the legal system’s rigorous pursuit for justice”.
‘The Rum Diary’ actress drew parallel between the UK libel trial and the US defamation trial writing, “When I took before a judge in the U.K., I was vindicated by a robust, impartial and fair system, where I was protected from having to give the worst moments of my testimony in front of the worlds [sic] media, and where the court found that I was subjected to domestic and sexual violence”.
But, during the US trail, despite exhausting all her resources and advances, power took over reason and due process. She continued, “In the U.S., however, I exhausted almost all my resources in advance of and during a trial in which I was subject to a courtroom in which abundant, direct evidence that corroborated my testimony was excluded and in which popularity and power mattered more than reason and due process”.
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