By Associated Press
FAIRFAX: A jury on Wednesday awarded Johnny Depp $10.35 million in his libel lawsuit towards ex-wife Amber Heard, vindicating his stance that Heard fabricated claims that she was abused by Depp earlier than and through their temporary marriage.
The jury additionally present in favor of Heard, who stated she was defamed by Depp’s lawyer when he known as her abuse allegations a hoax. The jury awarded her $2 million in damages.
The verdicts convey an finish to a televised trial that Depp had hoped would assist restore his popularity, although it was a spectacle of a vicious marriage. physique. Throughout the trial, followers — overwhelmingly on Depp’s facet — lined up in a single day for coveted courtroom seats. Spectators who couldn’t get in gathered on the road to cheer Depp and jeer Heard at any time when both appeared outdoors.
Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His attorneys stated he was defamed by the article despite the fact that it by no means talked about his title.
While the case was ostensibly about libel, a lot of the testimony centered on whether or not Heard had been bodily and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated greater than a dozen alleged assaults, together with a combat in Australia — the place Depp was capturing a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel — by which Depp misplaced the tip of his center finger and Heard stated she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.
Depp stated he by no means hit Heard and that she was the abuser, although Heard’s attorneys highlighted years-old textual content messages Depp despatched apologizing to Heard for his conduct in addition to profane texts he despatched to a good friend by which Depp stated he wished to kill Heard and defile her lifeless physique.
In some methods, the trial was a replay of a lawsuit Depp filed within the United Kingdom towards a British tabloid after he was described as a “wife beater.” The decide in that case dominated within the newspaper’s favor after discovering that Heard was telling the reality in her descriptions of abuse.
In the Virginia case, Depp needed to show not solely that he by no means assaulted Heard, however that Heard’s article — which centered totally on public coverage associated to home violence — defamed him. He additionally needed to show that Heard wrote the article with precise malice. And to assert damages he needed to show that her article brought on the injury to his popularity versus any variety of articles earlier than and after Heard’s piece that detailed the allegations towards him.
Depp, in his last testimony to the jury, stated the trial gave him an opportunity to clear his title in a approach that he the U.Ok trial by no means allowed.
“No matter what happens, I did get here and I did tell the truth and I have spoken up for what I’ve been carrying on my back, reluctantly, for six years.” Depp stated.
Heard, alternatively, stated the trial has been an ordeal inflicted by an orchestrated smear marketing campaign led by Depp.
“Johnny promised me — promised me — that he’d ruin my life, that he’d ruin my career. He’d take my life from me,” Heard stated in her last testimony.
The case captivated hundreds of thousands by means of its gavel-to-gavel tv protection and impassioned followers on social media who dissected the whole lot from the actors’ mannerisms to the attainable symbolism of what they had been carrying. Both performers emerge from the trial with reputations in tatters with unclear prospects for his or her careers.
Eric Rose, a disaster administration and communications professional in Los Angeles, known as the trial a “classic murder-suicide.”
“From a reputation management perspective, there can be no winners,” he stated. “They’ve bloodied each other up. It becomes more difficult now for studios to hire either actor because you’re potentially alienating a large segment of your audience who may not like the fact that you have retained either Johnny or Amber for a specific project because feelings are so strong now.”
Depp, a three-time greatest actor Oscar nominee, had till current years been a bankable star. His flip as Capt. Jack Sparrow within the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie helped flip it into a world franchise, however he’s misplaced that position. (Heard and Depp’s groups every blame the opposite.) He was additionally changed because the title character within the third “Fantastic Beasts” spin-off movie, “The Crimes of Grindelwald.”
Despite testimony on the trial that he could possibly be violent, abusive and uncontrolled, Depp obtained a standing ovation Tuesday evening in London after performing for about 40 minutes with Jeff Beck on the Royal Albert Hall. He has beforehand toured with Joe Perry and Alice Cooper because the group Hollywood Vampires.
Heard’s performing profession has been extra modest, and her solely two upcoming roles are in a small movie and the upcoming “Aquaman” sequel due out subsequent 12 months.
Depp’s attorneys fought to maintain the case in Virginia, partly as a result of state regulation supplied some authorized benefits in contrast with California, the place the 2 reside. A decide dominated that Virginia was a suitable discussion board for the case as a result of The Washington Post’s printing presses and on-line servers are within the county.
