Bitter Defamation Trial Ended In Favour Of Johnny Depp

Fifty-eight years old Mr Depp sued Ms Heard, 35, for $50m (£40m) over an opinion piece she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she discussed domestic abuse and experiencing “the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out”.

Estranged ex-husband and wife Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have reached the end of their bitter defamation trial in Virginia, which has attracted headlines across the world over the last six weeks as well as a feverish international audience online. 

Fans of the Hollywood actors have closely followed proceedings from the Fairfax County courthouse on TikTok and Instagram, obsessing over the testimonies offered, cutting clips of their favourite exchanges, making unlikely stars of the attorneys involved and cheerleading for their preferred side. 

Although Ms Heard did not name Mr Depp – to whom she was married between 2015 and 2017 – his legal team argued that readers of the newspaper were likely to assume he was the person responsible for the ordeal she alluded to and claimed that the article caused their client to lose out on lucrative movie roles.

On Wednesday, 1 June, the jury returned a verdict in favour of Mr Depp and ordered Ms Heard to pay him $10m in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages. 

Ms Heard countersued Mr Depp, whom she met when they starred together as lovers in The Rum Diary in 2011, for $100m (£80m), arguing that it is she who has been defamed by his lawyers arguing that her claims to victimhood amount to a “hoax”. 

She won a single part out of three listed in her counterclaim and Mr Depp was in turn ordered to pay her $2m. 

While the manner in which the trial has been carved up as mass entertainment has raised eyebrows in some quarters, particularly given the seriousness of the domestic violence claims at its heart and the risk of deterring others from coming forward to report abuse, it is undeniable that Depp v Heard has been packed with memorable moments.