American actress Amber Heard announced the settlement of $1 million in a defamation case against her ex-husband Johnny Depp on Monday. She said the decision was “not an act of concession”.
The Aquaman actress said that she had made the choice to settle “having lost faith in the American legal system”.
She also said that the settlement spares her the ordeal of further trials and allows her to finally “emancipate” herself from their marriage.
Here is the statement:
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Johnny Depp’s attorneys said later on in a statement that they were happy to “formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp”, and added that he would donate the money to charity. His attorneys have previously said that the case was “never about the money” for him.
For the unversed, Johnny Depp originally filed a $50 million defamation claim against Heard in March 2019 after she published an article in the Washington Post in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
In June, a Virginia jury ruled in Depp’s favor on three separate claims of defamation, awarding him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The latter sum was knocked down to $350,000 to comply with a statutory cap.
In a small consolation to Heard, the jury also found in her favor on one of her three counterclaims, finding Depp liable for a statement made by his attorney in which Heard was accused of perpetrating a “hoax.” He was ordered to pay Heard $2 million, leaving a net judgment of $8.35 million in his favor.
The six-week televised trial drew widespread public scrutiny.
