Johnny Depp wins defamation suit against Amber Heard, gets $15 million in damages

Cheena Khanna

June 2, 2022
11:27 am
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Johnny Depp wins defamation suit against Amber Heard, gets $15 million in damages

Hollywood actor Johnny Depp has won the defamation suit against his former wife Amber Heard. The jury members sided with Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against his ex-wife. The jury has awarded USD 15 million in damages to the actor. Depp’s victory was not absolute, though. Jurors also concluded that part of Heard’s counterclaim had merits. They found she was defamed by a Depp lawyer who accused her of roughing up their apartment to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $2 million over her countersuit.

Johnny Depp had sued ex-wife Amber Heard for $50 million in damages over a 2018 opinion-editorial essay. It was published by Heard in The Washington Post. In the post, she had called herself a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Heard had countersued Depp for USD 100 million which said she claimed that she has endured domestic violence during their 15-month marriage.

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The Virginia civil jury ruled in favour of Johnny Depp on all three of his counts Wednesday. They found that Heard had not only made false and defamatory statements but that she’d done so with “actual malice”. Reacting to the verdict, Heard called it a “setback” for women.

As soon as the judgement was passed in his favour Johnny Depp took to Instagram and shared a statement: “Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also, the lives of the people who for many, many years have supported and believed in me were forever changed. All in the blink of an eye.”

He added, “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. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that.”