Inside Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s $50 million defamation trial
With the former lovers back in court in the US state of Virginia, the plot is about to thicken.
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Johnny Depp’s legal stoush against his former wife, Amber Heard, well and truly kicked off at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia last week.
Mr Depp, 58, is suing Ms Heard, 35, for $50 million for allegedly defaming him in 2018 by writing an opinion piece for the Washington Post about her experience as a victim of domestic violence.
Ms Heard snapped back by filing a $100 million counterclaim against Mr Depp which alleges that Depp’s lawyers have smeared her.
As the case continues, it is imperative to understand where it all began and how it all got so ugly.
The beginning
Mr Depp and Ms Heard met on the set of The Rum Diary and began a relationship a few years later in early 2012.
They married in February 2015. But, after a mere fifteen months, they called their marriage quits.
In May 2016, Ms Heard filed an application for a divorce. She also sought a restraining order against Mr Depp, stating in court documents that she had been “violently attacked” by him.
At the hearing of her application, Ms Heard – who appeared in court with a bruised cheek – alleged Mr Depp “screamed at [her], pulled [her] hair” and had thrown a mobile phone at her face, striking her cheek and eye, with “extreme force”.
Ms Heard also alleged that she had been subjected to “excessive emotional, verbal and physical abuse” and “angry, hostile, humiliating and threatening assaults” by Mr Depp.
Although Ms Heard’s claims were denied by Mr Depp, the judge overseeing the case granted her a restraining order against the Pirates of the Carribean actor.
However – before the order could come into effect – the former lovers released the following joint statement.
“Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm.”
As part of her divorce settlement, Mr Depp allegedly gave Ms Heard $7 million – a sum that she vowed to donate to the American Civil Liberties Union.
The November 2020 lawsuit
In November 2020, Mr Depp launched legal proceedings against the publisher of the British tabloid newspaper The Sun – News Group Newspapers – and its then executive editor, Dan Wootton, for defamation.
Mr Depp alleged that Mr Wootton had smeared him by penning an article in 2018 which described Mr Depp as a “wife beater”.
At the three-week hearing at the High Court in London, both Mr Depp and Ms Heard gave evidence about their tumultuous relationship and each made allegations about the other party’s abuse towards them.
Ms Heard gave evidence about fourteen occasions where Mr Depp had choked, slapped, punched and headbutted her.
In his judgment, Judge Justice Nicol said that he accepted Ms Heard’s evidence that Mr Depp had been violent towards her during their relationship and that the claims made by The Sun in relation to Mr Depp were “substantially true”.
Mr Depp appealed Judge Nicol’s decision. In March 2021, Mr Depp’s appeal was rejected.
Why Mr Depp is now suing his former wife
In December 2018, Ms Heard penned an opinion piece for the Washington Post with the title “I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change”.
While Ms Heard did not explicitly name Mr Depp in the article, she did say that she “became a public figure representing domestic abuse” two years before and that she “felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out”.
“Friends and advisers told me I would never again work as an actress – that I would be black-listed. A movie I was attached to recast my role. I had just shot a two-year campaign as the face of a global fashion brand, and the company dropped me. Questions arose as to whether I would be able to keep my role of Mera in the movies Justice League and Aquaman”, she wrote.
“I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse”, she went on to write.
Mr Depp – in his court documents – alleged that the sentences referred to above amounted to defamation and constituted irreparable harm to his career and reputation.
“The op-ed’s clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser is categorically and demonstrably false”, the court documents said. “Her allegations… are part of an elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity for Ms Heard and advance her career.”
The current lawsuit
In March 2019 – just after Ms Heard’s opinion piece in the Washington Post was published – Mr Depp brought a $50 million claim against her for defamation.
In his court documents, Mr Depp alleges that even though he was not explicitly named in Ms Heard’s article, it was clear that she was speaking about him.
Mr Depp also describes Ms Heard’s allegations of domestic abuse as “categorically and demonstrably false” and “an elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity for Ms Heard and advance her career”.
Mr Depp alleges that Ms Heard was “the perpetrator” and that she had been arrested on a prior occasion for abusing a previous partner.
Mr Depp’s claim further alleges that Ms Heard’s opinion piece caused him to suffer more financial harm and “public scorn” which included being dropped from his star role as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Ms Heard’s responded to Mr Depp’s claim by serving him with a counter claim of her own in which she alleged that he and his lawyers had defamed her.
In the hot seat
Mr Depp and Ms Heard are both expected to give evidence at the trial along with a raft of others including their divorce lawyer Laura Wasser and Ms Heard’s ex-girlfriend, Tasya van Ree.
Elon Musk and James Franco are also expected to be in the witness box.
Mr Musk reportedly dated Ms Heard between 2016 and 2018 and offered to provide her with full-time security to protect her against Mr Depp, text messages produced at the UK trial said. Ms Heard allegedly told Mr Franco about the injuries she had received after a fight with Mr Depp.
The trial will be in Virginia
Even though the case was initiated in Virginia, Ms Heard’s lawyers attempted to move the case to California where the parties both live and where laws favour her claim.
However, a judge in Virginia decided that Mr Depp was able to launch the proceedings in Virginia because the Washington Post’s online editions were published from Fairfax County.
Originally published as Inside Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s $50 million defamation trial
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