Amber Heard To Pay $1 Million In Settlement With Johnny Depp In Defamation Case

Amber Heard will pay Johnny Depp $1 million to settle their defamation case. 

On December 19, Heard announced on Instagram that it was a “very difficult decision” and made “after a great deal of deliberation.”  

She further wrote, “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 re-victimized when they come forward.”

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Depp’s attorneys stated that he would donate the money to charity. In a statement, Depp’s attorneys Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez said, “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.”

In her own statement, Heard said that she settled after she “lost faith in the American legal system.” 

Depp originally sued Heard for defamation in March 2019 after she published an op-ed in the Washington Post, describing herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” 

At the Virginia trial, each actor testified, citing violent arguments and drug abuse. This was streamed live on YouTube and constantly clipped on Facebook and TikTok. 

Heard alleged that Depp assaulted her multiple times, choked her and raped her with a liquor bottle. Depp alleged that Heard was the violent offender in the relationship. 

The jury ruled in Depp’s favor on three claims of defamation. They also found Heard in favor of one of her three counterclaims where Depp’s former attorney accused Heard of spreading a “hoax.”

The following month, Heard appealed, but the actress has now agreed to withdraw it and settle. In her statement, she considered settlement as a last resort. She said, “[It was] an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to.”