Defamation: US Jury Rules In Favour Of Johnny Depp In Libel Suit
After six weeks of evidence in Johnny Depp’s high-profile libel trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard, jurors in Fairfax, Virginia, have come back with a verdict in the multimillion-dollar case.
Johnny Depp has won his multimillion-dollar lawsuit against former wife Amber Heard after a Virginia jury ruled a 2018 article published in The Washington Post was defamatory.
Depp, sued his ex-wife, Heard, for $50 million, accusing her of libelling him with a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post in which she described herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” The three-time Oscar nominee claimed her article ruined his career and led to a series of cancelled film projects, including a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean instalment.
Heard hit back with her own $100 million counterclaim after the star’s former lawyer Adam Waldman called her allegations a hoax. Both accused one another of ruining their respective careers.
The seven-man jury found both Depp and his ex-wife Heard liable for defamation — but sided more strongly with the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star following an intense trial riding on bitterly contested allegations of domestic abuse.
He was awarded $15m by the court – comprising $10m compensatory damages and a further $5m in punitive damages. But the jury also awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages, finding that Waldman defamed her in one of three counts in her countersuit.
After the jury ruled in his favour, Depp issued a statement, in which he said, he was “truly humbled” by the jury’s verdict, saying the allegations had had a “seismic impact” on his life and career.
“From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome”, he said.
“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.”
Heard said she was “heartbroken” at the verdict and said it “sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated”.
She added: “I’m sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American – to speak freely and openly.”
Depp and Heard started dating after meeting on the set of the 2011 film The Rum Diary and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. They split up in May 2016, with Heard filing for a restraining order shortly afterwards.
The verdict in the US case comes almost two years after Depp’s first libel trial in the UK, a three-week case against the publisher of The Sun newspaper at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London.
