The jury additionally discovered in favor of Amber, who mentioned she was defamed by Johnny’s lawyer when he known as her abuse allegations a hoax. Jury members discovered Johnny Depp ought to be awarded $15 million in damages, whereas Amber Heard ought to obtain $2 million.
The verdicts convey an finish to a televised trial that the Pirates of the Caribbean star had hoped would assist restore his status, although it became a spectacle of a vicious marriage. Fans–overwhelmingly on Johnny’s side–lined up in a single day to seize a seat in the courtroom. Spectators who couldn’t get in lined up on the road to cheer him and jeer Amber each time both appeared outdoors.
Johnny sued Amber for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His legal professionals mentioned he was defamed by the article regardless that it by no means talked about his identify.
While the case was ostensibly about libel, a lot of the testimony centered on whether or not Heard had been bodily and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated greater than a dozen alleged assaults, together with a combat in Australia — the place Johnny was capturing a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel — in which Johnny misplaced the tip of his center finger and Amber mentioned she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.
Johnny mentioned he by no means hit Heard and was by no means uncontrolled when ingesting, although Amber’s attorneys highlighted textual content messages Johnny despatched to pals recounting the copious quantity of alcohol and medicines he had taken at the moment. Her attorneys additionally confirmed that Johnny despatched texts apologizing to Heard for his conduct and wrote profane messages to a buddy in which Depp mentioned he needed to kill Heard and defile her useless physique.
In some methods, the trial was a replay of a lawsuit Johnny filed in the United Kingdom in opposition to a British tabloid after he was described as a “wife beater.” The choose in that case dominated in the newspaper’s favor after discovering that Heard was telling the reality in her descriptions of abuse.
Despite testimony on the trial that he may very well be violent, abusive and uncontrolled, Johnny obtained a standing ovation Tuesday night time in London after performing for about 40 minutes with Jeff Beck on the Royal Albert Hall. He has beforehand toured with Joe Perry and Alice Cooper because the group Hollywood Vampires.
(With AP inputs)