Amber Heard introduced she settled her defamation case towards Johnny Depp.
The shock move comes weeks after legal professionals for the actress formally appealed the June verdict, wherein a Virginia jury awarded the Pirates of the Caribbean star greater than $10 million. She pays him $1 million, which he’ll donate to charity.
Heard introduced Monday she “made a very difficult decision” to settle “after a great deal of deliberation.” The actress went on to slam the U.S. justice system in her prolonged assertion and stated she “cannot relive” the sort of humiliation she was uncovered to through the six-week trial.
“It’s important for me to say that I never chose this. I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed. The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are revictimized when they come forward. Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago,” the Aquaman star continued, referencing her very public 2016 divorce from Depp when she accused him of abuse.
Depp’s attorneys Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez inform Yahoo Entertainment in a press release, “We are pleased to formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp, who made clear throughout this process that his priority was about bringing the truth to light. The jury’s unanimous decision and the resulting judgement in Mr. Depp’s favor against Ms. Heard remain fully in place. The payment of $1M — which Mr. Depp is pledging and will donate to charities — reinforces Ms. Heard’s acknowledgement of the conclusion of the legal system’s rigorous pursuit for justice.”
Heard, 36, famous her assertion is “not an act of concession” and “there are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.” However, a Depp supply says, “Contrary to what she claims, the judgement can still be used against her if she were again to repeat the false and defamatory allegations.” The similar supply provides that there are “no victories here for her — the judgement against her stands.”
Depp sued Heard for $50 million over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post. Although the actress by no means named her ex-husband, she wrote about being the sufferer of bodily and sexual violence. A jury agreed it is cheap to deduce the particular person was Depp. The ruling meant a jury didn’t imagine Heard was emotionally or bodily abused, even as soon as — even after the star’s emotional testimony on the stand.
In her assertion, Heard stated she “lost faith in the American legal system, where my unprotected testimony served as entertainment and social media fodder.”
Although Depp received all three of his claims of defamation, Heard received one in every of her counterclaims and was awarded $2 million. However, the decision was thought of a convincing win for the actor and immediately contradicted a 2020 ruling within the U.Okay. When Depp sued a tabloid for labeling him a “wife beater,” a decide dominated it was “substantially true” the actor assaulted Heard on a dozen events.
“When I took before a judge in the U.K., I was vindicated by a robust, impartial and fair system, where I was protected from having to give the worst moments of my testimony in front of the worlds media, and where the court found that I was subjected to domestic and sexual violence,” she continued in Monday’s assertion. “In the U.S., however, I exhausted almost all my resources in advance of and during a trial in which I was subject to a courtroom in which abundant, direct evidence that corroborated my testimony was excluded and in which popularity and power mattered more than reason and due process. In the interim I was exposed to a type of humiliation that I simply cannot relive. Even if my U.S. appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a re-trial where a new jury would have to consider the evidence age. I simply cannot go through that for a third time.”
Heard, who welcomed a daughter in 2021, stated by settling this case she’s “choosing the freedom to dedicate my time to the work that helped me heal after my divorce; work that exists in realms in which I feel seen, heard and believed and in which I know I can effect change.”
“I will not be threatened, disheartened, or dissuaded by what happened from speaking the truth. No one can and no one will take that from me. My voice forever remains the most valuable asset I have,” she continued.
Heard thanked her legal professionals and supporters.
“Any survivor knows that the ability to tell their story often feels like the only relief,” she concluded. “I cannot find enough words to tell you the hope your belief in me inspires. Not just for me, but for all of you.”
