Amber Heard to settle Depp case but denies it is ‘an act of concession’

Actress Amber Heard said on Monday she would settle defamation claims brought against her by ex-husband and actor Johnny Depp, ending years of legal wrangling over duelling claims of abuse during their marriage.

In an Instagram post, Heard said the decision to settle with Depp was “very difficult” and followed “a great deal of deliberation”. She said this was “not an act of concession”.

In June Depp won a multimillion-dollar jury verdict for his defamation suit against Heard.

Depp’s co-lead trial counsel, Ben Chew and Camille Vasquez, said he would receive a payment from Heard’s insurers of $1m (about R17.3m) and Depp has pledged to donate the funds to charity.

Chew and Vasquez said: “We are pleased to formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr Depp, who made clear throughout this process his intent to bring the truth to light.”

Depp and Heard sued each other in 2022 for defamation, each claiming they were abused before and during their roughly two-year marriage.

After a six-week televised trial full of graphic testimony, a seven-person jury ruled in June that Heard defamed Depp, and the Pirates of the Caribbean star was awarded $10.3m (about R178m). The jury also determined that Heard was defamed, awarding her $2m (about R35m).

In July Heard filed an appeal to the Virginia jury’s decision that she defamed Depp when she claimed in a newspaper opinion piece she was a survivor of sexual violence.

Representatives for Heard did not respond to requests for additional comment after the Aquaman star posted her decision on Instagram.

“It's important for me to say I never chose this,” Heard said in her post.

“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 revictimised when they come forward,” she wrote.

Heard said she finally has the opportunity to “emancipate” herself from something she tried to leave more than six years ago.

In the post, she also said she had lost faith in the US legal system and favours the UK legal system as more “robust,” “impartial” and “fair”. Heard also blasted the US media, saying it favoured “popularity and power” over “direct evidence”.

“In the interim I was exposed to a type of humiliation I cannot relive,” Heard said.

“Even if my US appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a retrial where a new jury would have to consider the evidence again. I simply cannot go through that for a third time.” 

Reuters