Jeni Watson
On Wednesday, a jury awarded Johnny Depp more than $10 million in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard. Validating his assertion that Heard made up allegations about Depp’s abuse before and during their brief marriage.
The jury also sided with Amber Heard, who claimed Depp’s lawyer defamed her by calling her assault allegations a fake. The jury awarded Amber $2 million in damages.
The verdicts ended a public trial that Depp had hoped would help him regain his reputation but instead turned into a brutal matrimonial spectacle.
Depp’s followers waited in line overnight for coveted courtroom seats throughout the trial.
Those who were unable to enter the theater gathered on the street to celebrate Depp and jeer Heard whenever they appeared outside.
Amber Heard voiced his disappointment in the courtroom, where he had remained emotionless throughout the ruling.
“I’m much more dissatisfied with the implications of this decision for other women.” It’s a stumbling block.
It transports us to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out faced public humiliation.
It calls into question whether violence against women should be taken seriously,” she wrote on Twitter.
Furthermore,
Depp sued Amber Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court on Wednesday, citing an op-ed she published in The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.”
Even though his name was never mentioned in the work, his lawyers claimed it defamed him.
Even though the case was nominally about libel, the majority of the testimony centered on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused as she claimed.
Heard revealed more than a dozen alleged attacks. Including a fight in Australia in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and a sexual assault while filming a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel. In which she said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.
Heard’s counsel pointed to years-old text messages Depp sent apologizing to Heard for his behavior as well as vulgar texts he wrote to a friend.
Depp indicated he wanted to kill Heard and violate her dead body, despite Depp’s claim that he never hit her and that she was the abuser.
The trial was reminiscent of Depp’s lawsuit against a British tabloid after he was referred to as a “wife-beater” in the UK.
In that case, the judge found in favor of the newspaper after concluding that Heard was speaking the truth in her accusations of abuse.
Depp had to show not just that he never harmed Heard, but also that he never assaulted anyone else. But also that Heard’s piece — which mostly focused on public policy linked to domestic abuse – defamed him in the Virginia case.
He had to further show that Heard wrote the essay with malice in mind.
Closing Statement from Johnny
And, to recover damages, he had to show that her article harmed his reputation.
Rather than any of the other pieces that documented the charges against him before and after Heard’s essay.
Depp stated in his closing statement to the jury that the trial allowed him to clear his name in a way that the U.K. trial never did.
“Whatever happens, I got here, I told the truth, and I spoke up for what I’ve been carrying on my back, however reluctantly, for the past six years.” According to Depp.
On the other hand, Heard argues that the trial was a result of Depp’s well-coordinated smear campaign.
“Johnny promised me — guaranteed me — that he’d ruin my life and career. In her final statement, Heard stated, “He’d steal my life from me.”
The case fascinated millions of people because of its gavel-to-gavel television coverage and fervent social media followers. Who studied everything from the performers’ demeanor to the probable meaning of their attire.
Both actors leave the trial with their reputations in shambles and their careers in jeopardy.
Eric Rose, a crisis management and communication expert in Los Angeles, described the trial as a “typical murder-suicide.”
“There can be no winners in terms of reputation management,” he stated. “They’ve both bled to death.”
“Studios are finding it more difficult to hire either actor. Because feelings are so high right now, you risk alienating a huge portion of your audience by retaining either Johnny or Amber for a certain project.”
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Mini Detail about Johnny Depp
Depp, a three-time Oscar candidate for best actor, has been a bankable star until recently.
His performance as Captain Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film helped make it a global franchise, but he no longer plays the character. (Both Heard and Depp’s teams blame each other.)
He was also supplanted as the title character in “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” the third “Fantastic Beasts” spin-off.
In London on Tuesday night, Depp earned a standing ovation.
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After performing for nearly 40 minutes with Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall. Despite testimony at his trial that he could be violent, abusive, and out of control.
He previously traveled as part of the Hollywood Vampires alongside Joe Perry and Alice Cooper.
Heard’s acting career has been brief, and her sole upcoming roles are in a short film and the “Aquaman” sequel.
The lawyers for Depp pushed hard to keep the case in Virginia. Partly because state law offered some legal advantages over California law, where the two dwell.
Because The Washington Post’s printing presses and web servers are located in Virginia. A judge ruled that the case should be handled there.
