Entertainment
‘I’m sad I lost’ — Amber Heard reacts as Johnny Depp wins defamation suit
American actor, Johnny Depp, has won the defamation suit against his former wife, Amber Heard.
A jury found that Amber had defamed Depp in saying that he had abused her over the course of their relationship.
Depp had sued for $50 million in damages over a 2018 opinion-editorial essay by Heard in The Washington Post, in which she said she had become a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
Although the essay never mentioned Depp by name, his attorneys said it indirectly referred to allegations she made against him during their 2016 divorce.
The jury unanimously found that Heard could not substantiate her allegations against Depp and that she knew her claims of abuse were false when she published her 2018 essay.
The jury determined that Heard acted with actual malice when writing her op-ed. The jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages in his defamation suit.
Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate reduced the punitive damages the jury awarded to Depp to $350,000, which is the state’s statutory cap or legal limit, making his total damages $10.4 million.
This brings to an end a seven-week trial that was followed by millions across the world who had been in solidarity with either party.
Meanwhile, Amber Heard says she’s heartbroken after her former husband, Johnny Depp won the defamation case against her.
She released a statement after the judgement handed down by Fairfax County Court in favour of the American actor on Wednesday.
Amber described Johnny’s win as a setback and that she was more disappointed with what the verdict means for other women.
“It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously”, she wrote.
Heard believes Johnny’s attorneys succeeded in getting the jury “to overlook the freedom of speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK”.
“I’m sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American — to speak freely and openly”, the statement added.
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