Amber Heard and Johnny Depp both guilty of defamation
The jury announced its verdict on Wednesday. The actor will receive 15 million dollars in damages, Amber Heard 2 million.
Amber Heard will have to pay him $15 million in damages.
Getty Images via AFP
Both Amber Heard and Johnny Depp have defamed the other, concludes an American jury in the lawsuit between the two actors and ex-spouses. Johnny Depp will receive 15 million dollars in damages, Amber Heard 2 million.
The seven jurors answered in the affirmative to the question of whether the title and two passages of a tribune, published in 2018 by Amber Heard, contained defamatory remarks with regard to Johnny Depp, according to the reading of their decision .
Tribune published in 2018
The star of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” saga sued his ex-wife for a column published by the Washington Post in 2018, in which she said she was “a public figure representing domestic violence”.
Although he is not named, Johnny believes that this platform destroyed his career and his reputation, and claims 50 million dollars in damages.
Amber Heard, who appeared in particular in “Justice League” and “Aquaman”, counterattacked and asked for the double.
The 36-year-old actress claims to have been defamed by a former lawyer for her ex-husband, who called her accusations of domestic violence “hoaxes” in April 2020.
Three passages from the platform of Amber Heard and three statements from Adam Waldman, the actor’s lawyer, are concerned.
Jurors had to determine whether each passage was defamatory.
But to award damages, they had to judge whether the author of the statements had acted out of “actual malice”, knowing them to be false or whether they were made in disregard of the truth, a legal subtlety concerning public figures in the United States. United.
Johnny Depp absent
Johnny Depp was absent for the verdict “due to professional commitments made before the trial”, according to the ABC television channel, citing sources close to the actor.
After the hearings ended on Friday, he flew to the UK, where he took part in several concerts by British singer Jeff Beck in Sheffield and London.
Amber Heard was present in Fairfax.
“Your presence shows where your priorities are,” she said in a statement. “Johnny Depp plays guitar in UK as Amber Heard awaits verdict in Virginia. Depp takes his sneers and lack of seriousness on tour.
The trial, broadcast live on television, resulted in an unpacking of the couple’s private life, in front of millions of viewers around the world.
Six intense weeks
For six weeks, dozens of hours of testimonies and audio or video recordings revealed details of their enamelled romantic relationship, far removed from the glamor of Hollywood, between 2011 and 2016.
The actress said that Johnny Depp became a “monster” under the influence of an explosive cocktail of drugs and alcohol and refused to follow a rehab.
He would have raped her with a bottle of alcohol a month after their marriage, in March 2015, in Australia where the actor was filming episode 5 of “Pirates”.
That day, Johnny Depp had the end of a finger severed and was hospitalized. He claims it’s because of the glare from a bottle thrown by Amber Heard. She says he hurt himself.
After another argument in May 2016, during which Johnny Depp allegedly threw a phone in her face, she filed for divorce for domestic violence.
Since then, she says she became the target of a social media smear campaign that wiped out her career.
“Bewildering” accusations
The 58-year-old actor meanwhile denounced “staggering” accusations and assured that it was on the contrary his wife who was violent.
“No human being is perfect, certainly not, none of us, but never in my life have I committed sexual violence or physical violence,” he said on the stand.
Every day, hundreds of fans gathered in the courtroom and at the entrances to the court to cheer him on.
This trial, before a civil chamber, is the second for Johnny Depp, who had already had his defamation complaint dismissed in London in 2020 against the tabloid The Sun, which had called him a “violent husband”.
The two actors each claim to have lost between 40 and 50 million dollars in fees since the publication of the tribune.
Posted today at 9:26 p.m.
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