Johnny Depp has issued a statement stating that he is "pleased" regarding the out-of-court settlement that he and his ex-wife, Amber Heard, have reached regarding the defamation lawsuit that Depp filed against Heard back in 2019 that resulted in generally a victory for Depp earlier this year.
The settlement was announced earlier today by Heard, noting that the settlement was a "very difficult" decision for the actor, who was married to Depp from 2015-17. The original court decision, that both Depp and Heard had been appealing, was roughly an $8 million difference in Depp's favor between what Depp won at trial and what Heard won in her countersuit that was decided at the same trial. The settlement will be for $1 million.
What Was Johnny Depp's Statement About the Settlement?
Depp’s lawyers Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez released a statement to Deadline about the settlement, stating:
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 (actually) donate to charities – reinforces Ms. Heard’s acknowledgement of the conclusion of the legal system’s rigorous pursuit for justice.
No formal paperwork has been filed in the settlement, but it presumably will end both Depp's appeal and Heard's appeal. However, the judgment against Heard will remain on the books, so that if Heard repeats any of the allegations of abuse that led to Depp filing the original lawsuit, the original judgment could be enforced against her.
What Was the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Trial About?
The trial started when Heard wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post in late 2018 detailing the abuse that she went through while married to Depp. While she did not use Depp's name in the piece, it was clear who she was referring to (and a court later ruled that Depp was allowed to sue for defamation despite his name not literally being used in the piece), and Depp sued her for $50 million in early 2019. Heard countered with a $100 million defamation lawsuit of her own.
Separately, Depp sued a British newspaper for an article calling him a "wife-beater" based on Heard's claims. Last year, Depp lost that lawsuit, with a British judge ruling that Heard's claims were substantially true. However, in the defamation trial in Virginia (based on where the offices of the Washington Post were located), Depp prevailed on most counts, although Heard also succeeded on one of her counts. The difference between the damages awarded to each put Depp ahead by about $8 million, but he has now settled at $1 million.
The charity claim is important because donations to charity were a big part of the earlier trial, as Heard had publicly announced that she would be donating the $7 million that she received from Depp as part of their divorce settlement to charity, but then appeared to have not done so, which led to Depp's legal team using that as evidence of Heard being an unreliable witness.
Source: Deadline