Amber Heard and Johnny Depp announce defamation suit settlement

Actors Amber Heard and Johnny Depp are settling the ex-couple’s defamation lawsuits towards one another, they introduced Monday. The actors, whose troubled marriage was laid naked in detailed, generally graphic testimony accusing one another of bodily and verbal abuse earlier this 12 months in a extremely publicized trial in Virginia, are settling for $1 million, Depp’s attorneys stated in a press release. 

Depp sued Heard for libel over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Publish describing herself as “a public determine representing home abuse.” Despite the fact that the op-ed by no means talked about Depp’s identify, his legal professionals argued it clearly referenced abuse allegations Heard had made towards Depp throughout divorce proceedings. Heard, in her swimsuit, stated she was defamed by Depp when certainly one of his legal professionals referred to as her abuse allegations a “hoax.”

Following the high-profile trial that uncovered the internal workings of their marriage, Heard was ordered to pay $10.35 million in June to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star. The jury additionally awarded Heard $2 million in her countersuit. Each side appealed numerous facets of the jury’s choice.

In an Instagram post Monday morning, Heard referred to as the settlement “a possibility to emancipate myself from one thing I tried to go away over six years in the past and on phrases I can conform to,” and she or he indicated it wasn’t an act of contrition.

In a press release Monday, Depp’s attorneys Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez stated the settlement would “formally shut the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp.” A supply near Depp stated he’ll pledge the million {dollars} to a number of charities to be named at a later date.

Heard referred to as the choice to settle with Depp “very troublesome” and adopted “a substantial amount of deliberation.” 

“I’ve made no admission. This isn’t an act of concession,” she stated in her assertion. “There are not any restrictions or gags with respect to my voice transferring ahead.”

The supply near Depp stated the jury’s choice might nonetheless be used towards Heard if she repeats her allegations towards Depp.

Heard stated Monday that even when her attraction was profitable, the “finest consequence” could be a retrial.

“I merely can’t undergo that for a 3rd time,” Heard stated. She had beforehand testified within the U.Ok. about her home violence allegations when Depp unsuccessfully sued British newspaper The Solar for libel. The decide in that 2020 case concluded that Heard had certainly been topic to abuse at Depp’s palms on a number of events.

In Monday’s assertion, Heard stated she had “misplaced religion within the American authorized system,” noting that within the U.Ok. she was “shielded from having to provide the worst moments of my testimony in entrance of the world’s media.”

Evaluating the 2 trials, Heard stated within the U.S. “my unprotected testimony served as leisure and social media fodder … I used to be uncovered to a sort of humiliation that I merely can’t re-live.”