(Fairfax) Actor Johnny Depp emerged victorious in his bitter and highly publicized trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard on Wednesday, even though jurors concluded that the two Hollywood stars had defamed each other by way of Press.
Posted at 2:03 p.m.
Updated at 4:50 p.m.
After some 13 hours of deliberations in a court near Washington, the jury found in favor of the actor of Pirates of the Caribbean on all three grounds of his defamation suit, awarding him $15 million in damages.
Clearly, they unanimously felt that Amber Heard, 36, had made false statements by describing herself as a victim of domestic violence, and that she had acted “with malicious intent”.
The seven jurors – five men and two women – also ruled that Johnny Depp, 58, had defamed Amber Heard, awarding her $ 2 million in financial compensation.
The 36-year-old actress, present in court, welcomed the verdict with a serious face, seeming to accuse the blow.
She confided her “inexpressible disappointment” in a press release. “I am devastated that the mountain of evidence was not sufficient to address the far greater power, influence and ascendancy of my ex-husband,” she said. .
Absent from the courtroom, Johnny Depp reacted to him in the form of a message posted on Instagram. “The jury brought me back to life,” he said.
In front of the court, a few dozen people exulted at the announcement of the verdict. Behind a security tape, some spectators carried signs in support of the American actor, a man was dressed as Jack Sparrow, the person he plays in Pirates of the Caribbean.
The jurors answered in the affirmative to the question of whether the title and two passages of a column, published in 2018 in the Washington Post by Amber Heard, contained defamatory remarks with regard to Johnny Depp.
She described herself in this text as a victim of sexual and domestic violence, without however naming her ex-husband.
Believing that this platform had ruined his reputation and his career, Johnny Depp had sued his ex-wife, claiming 50 million dollars in damages.
Amber Heard, who appeared in particular in Justice League and Aquaman, had counter-attacked and demanded the double. She won partial justice on Wednesday, with jurors finding Mr Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, made defamatory remarks when he called Amber Heard’s sexual abuse allegations a ‘set-up’ in the newspaper DailyMail in 2020.
This highly publicized trial, since April 11, has offered a dive into the intimacy of the two Hollywood stars.