Amber Heard is looking to challenge the verdict in Johnny Depp’s defamation suit against her after the jury ruled in favor of her ex-husband.
Alafair Hall, a spokesperson for Heard, disclosed that the actor planned to appeal the verdict. However, he did not mention when the appeal will take place but it has been speculated that it will be sooner than later, according to reports.
This came after Johnny Depp won his defamation case against Amber Heard, with a jury awarding him $15 million after a seven-week trial marked by shocking allegations of abuse leveled by both sides.
The jury found in favor of Depp on all counts, indicating that the seven-member panel did not credit Heard’s allegations of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Depp was awarded $10 million in compensation damages and $5million in punitive damages. However, Presiding Judge, Penney Azcarate, reduced Depp’s punitive damages award from $5 million to $350,000, the maximum under Virginia law, bringing the total sum to $10.35 million, per reports.
In a token win for Heard, the jury – composed of five men and two women –found that Depp had defamed her through his attorney, Adam Waldman, as to a single statement, accusing her of staging an alleged assault. They awarded her $2 million in compensatory damages.
Depp, who is on tour with guitarist Jeff Beck in England, did not show up for the verdict, while Heard, sat at the defense table wearing a somber expression as she listened to the decision in Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia, according to some reports.
The protracted court battle kicked off in 2019 after Depp sued Heard over a 2018 op-ed, she wrote in the Washington Post identifying herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”. She did not refer to Depp by name, but his lawyers argued that the piece falsely portrayed Heard as a domestic violence victim and ruined his life.
It took the jury about 12 hours spread over three days to reach its verdict. Depp issued a statement celebrating the victory.
“The jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome. Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me”.
Johnny Depp
Heard said in a statement that she was devastated by what she believed this verdict meant for other women.
“I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. [The verdict] is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated”.
Amber Heard
How it all started
The warring exes began their public battle on May 27, 2016, a central date in their saga. That’s when Heard went to a Los Angeles courthouse to obtain a restraining order against Depp after he allegedly bashed her in the face with a cellphone. She exited the courthouse flanked by her publicist, and with a large bruise under her right eye, as a throng of photographers snapped her picture.
Depp’s team argued that she painted on the bruise and tipped off the press. The photos and abuse allegations went viral, garnering international headlines, and set off a vicious public quarrel that has persisted for six years – twice as long as their relationship.
During closing statements, Vasquez argued that Depp was the sole victim in their doomed romance.
“There is an abuser in this courtroom, and it is not Mr. Depp,” Vasquez told jurors, noting that it was the sixth anniversary to the day that Heard obtained the restraining order.
Vasquez described Heard as a “deeply troubled person, violent, afraid of abandonment, desperate for attention and approval”.
Heard fabricated her “wild, over-the-top and implausible” abuse claims after Depp told her he wanted to end their one-year marriage, the lawyer argued.
“You either believe all of it or none of it,” Vasquez said. “Either she is a victim of ugly, horrible abuse, or she is a woman who is willing to say absolutely anything”.
The ‘Edward Scissorhands’ actor took the stand for four days and told jurors how his ex-wife hurled a vodka bottle at him that shattered on his hand and sliced off the tip of his finger during a 2015 brawl in Australia. However, Heard has to this day denied it.
Jurors played disturbing audio recordings in which Heard admitted to hitting Depp and called him a “washed-up piece of shit” and a “sell out”.
In one recording, after the pair split, Heard told Depp, “Tell the world, Johnny, tell them, Johnny Depp, I Johnny Depp, a man, I’m a victim too of domestic violence”.
Depp alleges that Heard used the bogus abuse allegations to negotiate a $7 million divorce settlement, then moved on with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who she told her agent she didn’t love and was “just filling space”.
Although she publicly promised to donate the full sum to charity and claimed she had already done so on a TV show, it was revealed during the trial that she had only parted with a small fraction of the payout. Most of the donations made her on behalf came from Musk, according to testimony.
Heard offered a dramatically different account of their toxic relationship during her four days on the stand, telling jurors that Depp became a violent and belligerent “monster” when he was high and drunk.
In her most extreme abuse claim, the ‘Aquaman’ star accused Depp of dragging her nude body across broken glass and then penetrating her with a liquor bottle.
The alleged sexual assault occurred during the same 2015 blowout in Australia that left the ‘Black Mass’ star missing a piece of his finger.
In between sobs, Heard recounted another horrific act of sexual abuse. She alleged he forcibly performed a cavity search on her, violently sticking his fingers inside her and searching for his cocaine during a drug-induced rage.
The clashing exes weren’t the only celebrities in the courtroom for the bizarre trial, Kate Moss was a surprise witness appearing via live link from England on behalf of Depp. Ellen Barkin testified for Heard in a pre-recorded deposition.
Heard’s team initially indicated that they would call actor James Franco and Musk, but they never materialized on the stand.
