The jury found Amber Heard and Johnny Depp responsible for defamation in their lawsuits against each other. CNN. After examining all the testimonies and evidence, the jury concluded that both ex-spouses were lying.
Depp will receive $15 million in compensation, while Heard earned $2 million from Depp. Initially, the actor’s lawyers demanded compensation in the amount of $ 50 million, and Hurd – $ 100 million.
The actor was present at the final hearing and lowered his eyes as the verdict was read. Depp did not show up in court.
After the verdict, Hurd said he was “heartbroken”. “The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. “I am saddened that the mountain of evidence is still not sufficient to counter the disproportionate power and influence of my ex-husband,” she said.
“I’m even more disappointed with what this decision will mean for other women,” she added, adding that today’s decision “turned back time” at one point in history, and that a woman could be “publicly shamed and humiliated” and discredited that attitude. Violence against women should be taken seriously.
Depp published a letter in which he stated that “the jury gave him his life back.” “From the very beginning, a lawsuit was filed to tell the truth,” he said.
“While no charges were formally brought against me, false, very serious accusations were made against me through the media, which caused an endless flurry of hateful content against me,” Depp said.
“We are grateful, very grateful to the jury, the judge and the court staff for their extensive deliberations, who have devoted an enormous amount of time and resources to this case,” the actor’s lawyer, Camilla Vazquez, told reporters.
How did the trial start?
Depp and Heard met on the set of The Rum Diary in 2009 and were married in 2015. Already in 2016, the divorce proceedings began, in which the actress stated that her husband used physical and emotional violence against her. Later, the court forbade Depp to approach Heard. Later, the parties agreed: the actor dropped the charges, and the actor undertook to pay his maintenance of $ 7 million.
In 2018, the actress published an article in The Washington Post where she talks about her experience with domestic violence. The attacker’s name was not directly disclosed. At the same time, tabloid The Sun ran an article by journalist Dan Wootton: “You can go crazy: How can JK Rowling sincerely be glad to have Depp, a local rapist, in the new Fantastic Beasts movie?”
In 2019, the actor sued Hurd for libel, trying to prove that his ex-wife was lying and that he was the abusive one. He made it clear that he never hit the actor and provided photos of himself showing the bruises on his body. Hurd filed a counterclaim over comments from his lawyer, who described Depp’s allegations of violence as “hoax”. The hearing had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The trial lasted seven weeks. The case was heard in a court in Virginia, where the Washington Post’s printers and servers are located. However, the defendant in the case was not the newspaper.
Lawyers for both parties submitted photographs, audio and video recordings during the trial to substantiate their claims. Laurel Anderson, a clinical psychologist who worked with the couple in 2015, also testified. She described their relationship as “mutual violence.”