After a brutal six-week defamation trial, the jury ultimately decided Wednesday that Amber Heard defamed Johnny Depp on three counts after deliberating for just 13 hours.
The jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Virginia law states that punitive damages must be capped at $350,000, meaning Depp will actually receive a maximum total of $10.35 million.
Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages and no punitive damages.
“The disappointment I feel today is beyond words,” Heard’s team told The Post in a statement. “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.
“I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously,” Heard’s statement continues. “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.
“I’m sad I lost this case,” Heard’s statement concluded. “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, sued his ex-wife Heard for $50 million after she penned a Washington Post op-ed claiming an ex abused her. While she never named Depp, he claimed the essay damaged his career and potential earnings. Heard, then, countersued for $100 million for saying her abuse claims were falsified.
The jury ultimately found that while Heard was guilty on all claims of defamation, Depp only defamed his ex once, when Adam Waldman told the Daily Mail Heard set Depp up in a “hoax” when police visited their apartment in 2016.
