Amber Heard and her ex-husband Johnny Depp have officially settled their defamation fight. Heard made an announcement of her decision on Monday via a lengthy Instagram post saying the decision followed “a great deal of deliberation” and provides her with an “opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to.” She continued to deny that it was an act of concession, adding, “there are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.”
The pair married in 2015, but they divorced just 15 months later in 2016, Heard wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in 2018 titled, “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” Within it she described the abuse from a young age and being sexually harassed and assaulted, and pointed to a culture in Hollywood that protects male abusers. She made a reference to prior statements she made about experiencing domestic abuse and identified herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse,”
Due to the op-ed, in March of 2019 Depp filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard over the piece. In May 2022, a jury decided in Depp’s favor on three of his claims and against him on just one claim, awarding him over $10 million. While Heard received $2 million for statements made by Depp’s lawyer. Both sides ended up appealing the verdict, with Heard arguing that her statements were opinion and didn’t carry a defamatory implication. While Depp argued it shouldn’t be placed on him for statements that were made by his lawyer. He also said that the lawyer’s statements failed to meet standards for actual malice due to his attorney thinking what he was saying was the truth.
Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez, attorneys for Mr. Depp, stated that, “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 jury’s unanimous decision and the resulting judgement in Mr. Depp’s favor against Ms. Heard remain fully in place. The payment of $1M — which Mr. Depp is pledging and will donate to charities — reinforces Ms. Heard’s acknowledgement of the conclusion of the legal system’s rigorous pursuit for justice.”
In a statement made on Monday by Heard, she stated her life was destroyed in the process writing, “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. I make this decision having lost faith in the American legal system, where my unprotected testimony served as entertainment and social media fodder.”
She went on to say that, “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, In the interim I was exposed to a type of humiliation that I simply cannot re-live. Even if my U.S. appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a re-trial where a new jury would have to consider the evidence age. I simply cannot go through that for a third time.”
Heard concluded her statements on the matter in saying, “I cannot afford to risk an impossible bill — one that is not just financial but also psychological, physical and emotional. Women shouldn’t have to face abuse or bankruptcy for speaking her truth, but unfortunately it is not uncommon, In settling this case I’m also choosing the freedom to dedicate my time to the work that helped me heal after my divorce; work that exists in realms in which I feel seen, heard and believed and in which I know I can effect change.”
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