On Monday, December 19th 2023, actress Amber Heard posted on Instagram that she has decided to settle the defamation lawsuit lodged against her by her former husband Johnny Depp. She explained this difficult decision was taken after a considerable amount of reflection and thought-through deliberation.
In June 2022, a jury in Virginia decided that Aquaman star Heard had defamed Depp, the Pirates of the Caribbean actor. This highly publicized six-week trial included detailed evidence and testimonies divulging intimate details about their former marriage’s rocky relationship.
Mutual compensation between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp
On the jury’s ruling, Depp was awarded a total of $15 million in damages against Heard, while she received an aggregate of $2 million from him.
While Depp, 58, filed a lawsuit against Heard, demanding $ 50 million in compensation, saying that she had harmed his reputation when she described herself as a “public figure who represents (the tragedy of) domestic violence,” in a newspaper opinion article.
In return, Heard, 36, demanded $100 million in compensation, saying Depp abused her when his lawyer described her accusations as “vexatious”. Depp denied hitting Hurd or any woman, and said that Hurd was the one who used violence with him in their relationship.
Accusations of defamation
Amber Heard declared in an extensive post on her Instagram account that she is suspending the ongoing legal proceedings for a time span of six weeks, during which these two exes had been engaged in a relentless battle. Johnny Depp blamed Amber Heard of libel after she wrote an article featured in The Washington Post where she depicted herself as “a victim of domestic abuse.”
The American actress wrote: “I made a very difficult decision, it is important for me to say that I would never have chosen this. Women”.
Amber Heard further said, “Even if my appeal to American justice is successful, the best outcome would be a new trial, where the new jury must evaluate the evidence. I can’t get past this third time.”
