Amber Heard claims Depp verdict is a ‘setback for women’ and says freedom of speech ‘has been lost’

Amber Heard called the ruling of $15million in damages for ex-husband Johnny Depp in his defamation trial a ‘setback for women’ and a loss for freedom of speech. 

Heard, in a statement following the verdict in Virginia Wednesday, expressed disappointment at a number of consequences from the jury’s ruling. 

‘The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband,’ Heard said in a statement after the ruling Wednesday. 

She added that this was ‘a setback’ for women ‘to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated.’ 

Heard, 36, then blamed star attorney Camille Vasquez and Depp’s other legal experts.

‘I believe Johnny’s attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK.’

She ultimately considers the defeat, despite her own ruling for $2million in a countersuit, a loss for her freedom of speech. 

‘I’m sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American – to speak freely and openly.’

Depp, 58, meanwhile thanked the ‘outpouring of love and the colossal support and kindness from around the world’ in his own statement, which he said ‘overwhelmed’ him.

‘I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up. I also hope that the position will now return to innocent until proven guilty, both within the courts and in the media.’

Heard was awarded $2million in compensatory damages out of the $100million she was seeking in her countersuit against her ex-husband. She was awarded zero dollars in punitive damages.

Despite the jury awarding Depp $15million, the judge reduced the punitive damages to the Virginia maximum of $350,000. Johnny will now only receive $8.35million in total after paying Heard $2million. 

Depp was not present as he was in the UK on tour with guitar legend Jeff Beck – a source claimed it was due to ‘previously scheduled work commitments.’ Meanwhile, Heard walked into court wearing a black dress and appeared anxious. After the verdict was read out Heard briefly hugged her lawyers then exited the courtroom. 

‘Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also, the lives of the people who for many, many years have supported and believed in me were forever changed,’ Depp said.

‘False, very serious and criminal allegations were levied at me via the media, which triggered an endless barrage of hateful content, although no charges were ever brought against me. It had already traveled around the world twice within a nanosecond and it had a seismic impact on my life and my career,’ the Pirates of the Caribbean star added.

He said that because of the ruling, ‘six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.’

He said that he pursued this case after ‘considerable thought’ and ‘knowing very well the height of the legal hurdles that I would be facing and the inevitable, worldwide spectacle into my life.’

He credited Judge Penney Azcarate, the jury, the staff of the Virginia court and the local sheriffs who ‘sacrificed their own time to get to this point, and to my diligent and unwavering legal team who did an extraordinary job in helping me to share the truth.’

The axed Fantastic Beasts star then perhaps gave hope to his legion of fans wishing to see him in blockbuster films again: ‘The best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun.’

Depp finished: ‘Veritas numquam perit. Truth never perishes.’

The lightning-fast verdict came as the culmination of the six-week trial that was the OJ Simpson case for Generation Z: a spectacle that was chopped up and replayed on TikTok in clips that were viewed tens of millions of times. 

It was the second time the former husband and wife squared off in court: Depp lost a libel case against a British newspaper at the High Court in London in 2020 where a judge ruled it was ‘substantially true’ he was a wife beater.

In the new case held in Fairfax, Virginia, Depp, 58, sued Heard for $50million claiming that she defamed him with an op-ed piece in the Washington Post in 2018 in which she claimed to be a survivor of domestic abuse.

Heard, 35, countersued for $100million claiming that Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman made defamatory statements by calling her claims a ‘hoax.’

Since the marathon trial started on April 11, Depp has called 38 witnesses while Heard’s team called 24.

Both Depp and Heard gave evidence for four days each including a forensic cross examination from the opposition lawyers – then both returned to the witness stand to testify a second time.

The jury saw dozens of texts, photos, videos, medical records and even pages from the former couple’s ‘Love Journal’ they hand wrote to each other.

The libel case was so complicated that the verdict sheet had 42 questions the jury had to answer before delivering the verdict: 24 questions for Depp’s claims and 18 for Heard’s counterclaim.

A verdict form is used to formalize the jury’s decision on the case. Spanning eight pages, it means the jury had to decide on dozens of matters before reaching their verdict.

There is also a section where they had to decide on the damages for Depp and Heard – and any punitive damages.

The court heard clips of recordings that Depp and Heard made during their arguments, some of their most intimate moments that were played back for the world years later in the most public setting imaginable.

THE CASE 

Despite the torrent of evidence about abuse from both sides, the case was actually about a far narrower issue.

For Depp’s $50million claim, the jury had to decide whether or not Heard had defamed him with her piece in the Washington Post that said she was a survivor of domestic abuse. The article did not name Depp, but he argued that it was obvious that she was referring to him.

Depp sued over three parts of the article, which said: ‘I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath’; that Heard was a ‘public figure representing domestic abuse’ and that she had a ‘rare vantage point of seeing how institutions protect men accused of abuse.’

As part of this, the jury had to decide whether or not Heard was speaking about a matter of ‘public concern.’ If so she was protected under the First Amendment.

For Heard’s counterclaim, which she demanded $100million for, she claimed that Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman defamed her with three statements he made to the media in 2020.

They were that Heard ‘used fake sexual violence allegations as sword and shield’; ‘this was an ambush, a hoax…Amber and her friends spilled a little wine, roughed the place up, got their stories straight under the direction of a lawyer and publicist, and then placed a second call to 911’ and another statement calling her claims an ‘abuse hoax. In both cases each party had to prove that the statements were made with ‘actual malice’, meaning they were done knowing they were wrong.

DEPP’S TESTIMONY

Speaking in a halting, rambling voice, Depp portrayed himself as a ‘Southern gentleman’ who was scarred from his upbringing in Kentucky at the hands of an abusive mother.

He said that Heard’s claims of abuse were ‘heinous and disturbing’ and were ‘not based in any species of truth.’

When Heard filed for a restraining order in 2016 following their divorce, Depp went from ‘Cinderella to Quasimodo’ in Hollywood, he complained.

Like with his mother, Depp would try to walk away from conflict but she never let him.

While Depp admitted he did have a ‘monster’ inside of him that came out when he drank and did drugs, he claimed Heard was the real abuser.

Depp said that at the beginning of their relationship Heard felt ‘too good to be true’ but then she started to ‘reveal herself’.

She subjected him to an ‘endless parade of insults’ and uncontrolled rage and, as Depp told the jury: ‘I was not allowed to be right. I was not allowed to have a voice.

‘It was like you were pinned to a wall and you have to just listen to it and take it.’

According to Depp, it felt like he was reliving his relationship with his mother all over again, and Heard had a ‘pure hatred’ of him.

Depp said that Heard had a ‘need for conflict’ that she enacted upon him.

He stayed with her because Heard threatened to kill herself if she left him and, just like his father, he became stoic in the face of a volatile woman.

The abuse culminated in the incident in Australia where Depp claimed that Heard became ‘possessed’ and threw a vodka bottle at him, hitting his hand and severing his fingertip.

He told the jury: ‘My hand is on the edge of the bar like that, leaning over.

‘She threw the large bottle and it made contact and shattered everywhere and I honestly didn’t feel the pain at first at all, I felt no pain.

‘What I felt was heat and I felt as if something were dripping down my hand and then I looked down and realized that the tip of my finger had been severed. I was looking directly at my bone sticking out.’

Then Heard stubbed a cigarette out on Depp’s face, he claimed.

Under cross examination Depp was interrogated about texts, videos and photos which showed him to be the aggressor.

He was confronted with messages he sent to his friend, the British actor Paul Bettany in which Depp wrote: ‘Let’s Burn Amber.’

In another message Depp said: ‘I will f**k her burnt corpse afterward to make sure she is dead.

Heard’s lawyer Benjamin Rottenborn said: ‘You wrote that about the woman who would later become your wife.’

Depp said: ‘Yes.’

In a message to another friend, Depp said he wanted to see Heard’s ‘rotting corpse decomposing in the f**king trunk of a Honda Civic.’

To his agent Christian Carino Depp said that Heard will ‘hit the wall hard’ and he hoped ‘karma takes the gift of breath from her.’

Depp tried to explain such messages as ‘dark humor’ that he got from watching the British TV comedy show Monty Python.

Then there was the 2014 flight from Boston to Los Angeles where Heard claimed that Depp was drunk and abusive before blacking out.

The court heard an audio recording of Depp groaning ‘like an animal’ after he passed out.

A week after the flight, Depp texted Bettany: ‘Ugly mate… A thousand Red Bull and vodkas, pills, two bottles of champers on plane and what do you get? Screaming obscenities and insulting any f**k who got near. I’m done.’

The court was also shown a video of Depp smashing up the kitchen of his home in Los Angeles while drinking what was described as a ‘mega pint’ of wine.

Depp says in the film: ‘You want to see crazy? I’ll give you crazy.’

Trying to explain his actions, Depp said: ‘I did assault a couple of cabinets but I did not touch Miss Heard.’

As the cross examination went on, Depp grew tired of Rottenborn, saying his name out loud with an emphasis on ‘rotten.’

Depp tried to defuse the tension with humor and, asked if he usually drank whiskey in the mornings, Depp said: ‘Isn’t it happy hour any time?’

The only time Depp truly became emotional was when the jury heard an audio recording of one of his last fights with Heard, after they had divorced and were attempting to reconcile where he repeatedly asked her to cut him with a knife.

HEARD’S TESTIMONY

Amber Heard told the jury how she went from feeling like the ‘luckiest woman in the world’ when she and Depp began seeing each other in 2012 to being called a ‘c**t’ on an almost daily basis.

In emotional testimony, she described Depp as a violent and jealous man who would essentially veto films she wanted to do because he didn’t want her exposing her body on camera.

And she sobbed as she described  in graphic detail how Depp sexually assaulted her with a bottle in Australia in March 2015, one of a litany of shocking claims.

The incident happened during what Heard called a ‘three-day hostage situation’ when Depp was out of his mind on ecstasy pills and cocaine and supposed to be filming Pirates of the Caribbean 5.

As Heard described it, she felt a pressure against her pubic bone and recalled fearing he was using a broken bottle inside of her.

She said: ‘I thought he was punching me, I felt this pressure on my pubic bone…I remember looking around the room. I remember looking at all the broken bottles, broken glass, and I remember just not wanting to move because I didn’t know if it was broken or if the bottle he had inside of me was broken.’

Heard described what was dubbed the ‘cavity search’ incident. when she testified Depp reached into her vagina searching for cocaine and  the time he headbutted her leaving her with a suspected broken nose.

Heard described another sexual assault on Depp’s private island in The Bahamas in December 2015 and claimed he was drunk in front of his children.

As Heard described it, she tried to get Depp to quit drinking and taking drugs but the ‘monster’ inside of him kept coming back.

She hit out at the online hate mob of trolls who said they wanted to put her baby in the microwave.

Heard said: ‘It’s easy to forget, I’m a person.’

Under cross examination Heard admitted that she had not donated her $7million divorce settlement to charity as she repeatedly claimed, including during the libel trial in the UK in 2020.

Heard tried to claim that she saw the words ‘pledge’ and ‘donate’ as the same and claimed she had spent $6million on legal fees, meaning she was unable to fulfill her promises.

She was also forced to explain an audio recording where she admitted to hitting Depp but denied punching him.

Her clash with Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez was lauded by Depp’s fans online who dubbed the attorney ‘Queen Camille.’

KATE MOSS AND ELLEN BARKIN: THE CELEBRITY WITNESSES

Kate Moss was called as a surprise last minute witness by Depp’s team. Over three minutes of testimony from her home in the English countryside, Moss denied a rumor cited by Heard that Depp once pushed her down the stairs while they were vacationing in Jamaica during the time they dated between 1994-1998. 

In fact, he came to her aide and helped her get medical attention, Moss said.

Moss’s evidence was cited by Depp’s lawyer Benjamin Chew as proof the case was ‘MeToo without MeToo’ as not even Moss accused him of abuse.

But testifying for Heard, actress Ellen Barkin testified that Depp threw a bottle of wine at her and she called him a ‘controlling, jealous man.’

She said: ‘I had a scratch on my back once that got him very, very angry because he he insisted it came from having sex with a person who wasn’t him.’

KEY WITNESSES

While Depp relied on a number of his employees to make his case, Heard turned to friends and witnesses to argue hers.

Depp’s 38 witnesses ranged from his sister to his security guards, his chauffeur and a senior Warner Bros executive.

Heard’s 24 witnesses included her sister Whitney and her former best friend Rocky Pennington who both detailed seeing incidents where Depp was violent and abusive.

Both sides called dueling experts on several areas of the case.

A photography expert called by Depp’s side claimed that the images of Heard’s face with injuries could have been faked. Not so, said the equivalent expert from team Heard – they were authentic.

There were conflicting accounts of how much damage the claims had done to each side’s career with Depp’s financial damages expert arguing he had lost $40million in acting roles after her op-ed was published.

A Hollywood industry expert hired by Heard’s lawyers argued she lost as much as $50million from Depp’s claims against her.

The division even extended to Heard’s mental state.

 

Depp called Dr. Sharon Curry, a clinical and forensic psychologist, who diagnosed Heard with borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder and said she suffered from violent mood swings.

Heard’s equivalent expert, Dr. Dawn Hughes, rejected this and said that Heard had a clear cut case of PTSD from her years of trauma.

One of the few unbiased observers called to give evidence was Laurel Anderson, a marriage counselor who treated Depp and Heard.

She told the court that they engaged in ‘mutual abuse’ and that Heard ‘fought as hard’ as Depp did.

Dr. Anderson said that Depp was ‘triggered’ into acting out his abusive upbringing by Heard’s violence.

Heard would initiate fights with Depp rather than have him walk away because ‘abandonment was her worst nightmare

Another key witness was Walter Hamada, the President of DC Comics film production for Warner Bros.

He denied that the studio was considering paying Heard more for Aquaman 2 because a ‘big part of our philosophy’ was to hold actors to their original agreements.

Heard’s legal team claimed she could have renegotiated her fee from $2million for the first Aquaman movie to $6million for the second one.

Hamada also denied Heard’s claims that her character, Mera’s role was being dramatically reduced with an action scene taken away from her.

In his evidence the ACLU’s general counsel, Terence Dougherty, admitted that the civil rights organization drew up the first draft of Heard’s op-ed.

Dougherty also admitted that the piece was timed to coincide with the release of Aquaman to leverage publicity for the film to have as much impact as possible.

THE POOP INCIDENT

After a fight in April 2016, Depp and Heard  didn’t see each other for a month – but Depp claimed that Heard left him a surprise.

He told the court he found a poop in the bed of the penthouse they shared in Los Angeles and he thought it was disgusting.

Depp’s chauffeur Starling Jenkins claimed that Heard once told him it was a ‘horrible prank that went wrong.’

In her testimony Heard suggested that it was one of their Yorkshire terriers, Boo, that did the dirty deed, telling the court that the animal had ‘eaten Johnny’s weed as a puppy and had bowel control issues for life.’

Heard said that Boo and their other dog, Pistol, would sleep in their bed so Boo wouldn’t have to get up in the night and possibly do his business on the floor.

She said that while packing to go away to the Coachella music festival, Heard left Boo in the bed which appears to have been when the poop occurred.

Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft asked Heard: ‘Did you commit any kind of prank?’

Heard said: ‘Absolutely not. First of all I don’t think that’s funny. I don’t know what grown woman does.

‘I was not in a pranking mood. My life was falling apart. I was at a crossroads in my life and I’d just been attacked on my 30th birthday by my violent husband with whom I was in love. 

‘I don’t think that’s funny, period. That’s disgusting.’

In his testimony, Depp said: ‘My initial response to that was, I mean I laughed. It was so outside, it was so bizarre and so grotesque that I could only laugh.’

ELON MUSK AND JAMES FRANCO: THE LOVE INTERESTS

Both men were on Heard’s list of potential witnesses and while neither was called, the trial did get an insight into their relationships with her.

The court heard that Depp ‘hated’ Franco and was jealous of him after he and Heard starred together in the movie ‘Pineapple Express.’

The jury was shown a video of Franco putting his head on Heard’s shoulder the night after her last fight with Depp.

Heard testified that she met Musk at the Met Gala in 2016 and thought he was a ‘real gentleman.’

They dated for a year but when they broke up a friend texted Heard that she never really loved him.

Musk donated $500,000 to the ACLU on behalf of Heard which she claimed was not part of the $3.5million she planned to give to the civil rights organization.

Depp’s jealousy towards Franco was said to be the reason why he flew into a rage on board the Boston to Los Angeles flight when he allegedly kicked Heard in the back.

Heard recounted the incident with a sigh and said that Depp’s jealousy towards Franco was a ‘nightmare.’

Depp ‘hated, hated’ Franco even though she did not have an affair with him, Heard said.

On the plane Depp asked his wife: ‘Did he slip a tongue in’, referring to Franco and asked her ‘how much you liked it.’

She said: ‘He called me a go-getter, he called me a slut – this is happening with security and his assistants on the plane. I struggle to be able to tell you how embarrassed I was.’

The text Depp sent to Bettany saying ‘let’s burn Amber’ was because he suspected she was having an affair with Franco, the jury was told.

Heard claimed that Franco’s visit on May 22, 2016 – after Depp threw a phone at her face – was because he was a friend and because he lived next door.

The footage shows them standing in the elevator together when Franco affectionately puts his head on Heard’s shoulder.

The trial heard that Depp suspected Heard was seeing Elon Musk before they split up in May 2016, claims that Heard denied – she said they got together immediately after the breakup.

Depp’s friend Isaac Baruch, who lived across the hall from Heard’s penthouse in Los Angeles, saw Musk twice at Heard’s apartment later in the summer of 2016.

One time he was looking out his window when he saw Musk ‘going through the balcony door’ to Heard’s apartment, Baruch told the court.

Heard and Musk dated until August the following year when she wrote to a friend that ‘yet again a man lets me fall on the spikes by myself.’

The friend, talent agent Christian Carino, wrote back: ‘You weren’t in love with him. You told me 1,000 times you were just feeling space.

Heard replied: ‘I know but I wanted time to grieve and recover in my own time.’

In her testimony, Heard told the court that on May 2, 2016 she went to the Met Gala without Depp. The former couple were invited by the designer Ralph Lauren and Heard ‘went by myself’ because Depp ‘effectively stood me up on the (red) carpet.’

Heard said that while waiting to go in she met a man called ‘Elon’ who she later realized was Elon Musk. 

 

THE SIDE SHOW

Depp’s lawyers successfully argued for the trial to be televised, turning it into an international circus.

Millions of people tuned in every day on YouTube channels streaming it live and Court TV covered the case from gavel to gavel.

A cottage industry of commentators sprung up around the trial with YouTube channels offering legal analysis.

The trial went on so long it sank into the public consciousness and was even parodied on Saturday Night Live.

The arrivals of both parties became a spectacle as well with Depp rolling up in a large SUV to dozens of female fans screaming ‘Johnny!’ at the gates of the court.

Depp and Heard were under orders from the judge not to sign autographs but Depp waved at crowd, cracking jokes about having bought them all waffles.

Depp’s music choice in his car as he arrived each day gave an insight into his mindset and a frequently blasting ‘War’ by Bob Marley.

Depp and Heard’s fashion choices became a subject of debate as well: he favored tailored three piece suits in gray or blue while she favored muted tones and 1930s style up-do hairstyles

Heard was accused of copying Depp’s courtroom outfits, with social media users pointing out multiple similarities between their ensembles.

On the first day of the trial, on April 11, Depp was seen wearing a Gucci tie, which had a bumblebee on it. And two days later, on April 13, Heard sported a very similar tie, which also had a bee on it.

People have also pointed out that Depp donned a gray suit for the first day of the trial, and Heard was then seen wearing a pants and shirt combo of the same color to the courthouse on April 12.

Then, on April 18, Depp showed up to court with his long hair pulled back into a ponytail. The next day, on April 19, Heard had her long locks styled in a similar way – and many people thought it was not a coincidence.

While Heard took notes or remained impassive, Depp was seen eating candy and doodling sketches in a notebook.

On the Monday of the last week of the trial a woman was removed from the courtroom after holding up a baby and yelling, ‘Johnny I love you, this baby is yours.’

The woman shouted: ‘Our souls are connected!’

Depp waved back at the woman who was escorted out.

Depp’s fans swamped social media with #justiceforjohnny trending repeatedly, as did #amberturd.

CAMILLE VASQUEZ

Depp’s fans were sent into a frenzy over his lawyer who cross examined Amber Heard and was so close to him it sparked speculation they were dating.

Camille Vasquez won over Depp’s supporters with her brutal interrogation of Heard which became an exercise in snark and sarcasm.

Vasquez grilled Heard on each of the incidents she testified that Depp was the aggressor, picking holes in her story aggressively and mercilessly.

Why, Vasquez wanted to know, did Heard buy Depp a knife with the inscription ‘Until Death’ if he was so abusive towards her?

Why didn’t Heard take any photos of her injuries after the Australia incident, even though she took plenty of pictures of the damage to the house they were renting?

At one point Vasquez asked: ‘You haven’t been able to move on with your life, have you?’

While asking why she took photos of Depp passed out, including one where he dropped ice cream on his crotch, Vasquez said: ‘You really like taking pictures of Mr. Depp while he’s sleeping?’

Another time Vasquez needled Heard and told her that ‘you wanted to be seen as a noble victim of domestic violence.’

Heard became emotional and said that she ‘never’ wanted to be seen as a victim.

During one especially blunt moment, Vasquez said: ‘Mr. Depp is your victim isn’t he? And once he left you you continued to abuse him by calling him an abuser?’

The most intense exchange was over Heard’s failure to donate her $7million divorce settlement to charity as she has repeatedly claimed to have done.

Vasquez said: ‘Sitting here today you have not donated $7million, donated your divorce settlement to charity?’

In response Heard said: ‘I use pledge and donate synonyms with one another.’

In her summing up for the case, Vasquez said: ‘There is an abuser in this courtroom but it’s not Mr. Depp. There’s a victim of abuse in this court but it’s not Miss Heard’.

If Heard was lying then she was a woman who was prepared to ‘say anything,’ Vasquez told the jury.

Vasquez, 37, from Los Angeles-based Brown Rudnick, is a specialist in litigation and defamation and one of eight lawyers on Depp’s team.

In court she was seen hugging Depp, who responded by hugging her back, patting her shoulders and at one point patting the back of her head.

But according to reports Vasquez had merely grown close to Depp while they have been working on the trial, which is now in its fifth week.

She has been seeing a British real estate agent for several months and is not interested in Depp romantically.