The acrimony between former spouses Johnny Depp and Amber Heard continues as the Pirates of the Caribbean star accuses the Aquaman star of keeping her $7 million divorce settlement after she had made a public statement about donating all of her settlement money to charity.
Depp and his legal team are pursuing an appeal of the decision by British judge, Andrew Nicol, to find in favor of the defendants in a defamation lawsuit Depp filed against the Rupert Murdoch-owned British newspaper, The Sun, after the tabloid repeated claims by Heard that Depp was physically abusive towards her during their tumultuous, short-lived marriage. Depp and Heard both testified as to their version of various altercations in their marriage and Nicol ultimately determined that he believed Heard's side of events more. Heard's interest in Depp's fortunes, however, were one of the things that were debated during the trial.
One of Depp's main positions was that Heard manipulated him to gain access to his fortune, basically calling her a "gold digger" who was never interested in anything more than a paycheck. Heard, however, testified that, "I remained financially independent from him [Depp] the whole time we were together and the entire amount of my divorce settlement was donated to charity." In fact, Nicol cited that fact in his ruling, stating, "Her donation of the $7 million to charity is hardly the act one would expect of a gold-digger."
Since Heard made her initial charity claim, Depp and his lawyers have been trying to learn from the two charities Heard pledged to donate the settlement to, Children's Hospital Los Angeles and American Civil Liberties Union, whether Heard actually donated the money. The ACLU has refused to cooperate, but recently, the Childen's Hospital has admitted that Heard has only donated $100,000 so far and that the hospital actually wrote to her in June of 2019 asking Heard, "I am inquiring if you have knowledge if CHLA should expect further payment installment(s) on your behalf or if the pledge will not be fulfilled. I appreciate any insights on this matter."
Heard's lawyer, Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, released a statement, "Mr. Depp's effort to plant stories in the media criticizing Amber for not yet fulfilling all the donations she pledged to charity is yet another desperate attempt to divert attention from the UK Court's findings relating to allegations of Mr. Depp committing domestic abuse.
Amber has already been responsible for seven figures in donations to charitable causes and intends to continue to contribute and eventually fulfil her pledge.
However, Amber has been delayed in that goal because Mr. Depp filed a lawsuit against her, and consequently, she has been forced to spend millions of dollars defending Mr. Depp's false accusations against her."
Obviously, Depp and his supporters have latched on to "eventually fulfill her pledge" statement to note that that means that Heard has not donated the $7 million settlement. Depp's lawyers also note that the settlement was in 2016 and the lawsuit was not until early 2019.
Via Daily Mail.