Johnny Depp Trial
Updated: Jan 12
Raking through the news right now is Johnny Depp’s 50 million dollar defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Depp is being accused of both physically and sexually assaulting Heard throughout the course of their marriage. However, he sued her for defamation after she wrote in The Washington Post that she was a “public figure representing domestic abuse” in 2018. While Depp's name was never mentioned in the article, he and his lawyers claim that Heard was clearly referencing him, citing evidence of her restraining order against him in 2016. There was testimony that the article was reviewed through the various stages of writing, and Heard’s lawyers were consulted to make sure that it followed the nondisclosure agreement between Heard and Depp created during their 2016 divorce. Discussions between Heard and Depp uncovered that Heard edited the tapes of the conversations so they cut out significant information about her marriage.
Last week, the trial surrounded the article. Depp claimed that the accusations Heard made contributed to a poor reputation cast on him throughout Hollywood. He shared how he felt this was unfair and cost him his role in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise. In Depp’s testimony, he discussed how he was pulled from the movie franchise just a few days following the release of the article. However, Heard’s lawyer argued that Disney made the decision to remove him months prior to the article coming out.
Depp elaborated on the fact that he has never hit Heard, and never struck a woman before in general. He went on to accuse Heard of physical and emotional abuse, leading her to file a countersuit for 100 million dollars against him.
Heard’s lawyers still believe that even if the jury believes that Depp never abused her, she would still prevail in the suit since the article, a very large piece of evidence, does not even have proof that it was directly aimed at Depp, as his name was not included.