Actress Amber Heard announced Monday that she had reached a settlement in the multi-million dollar defamation case filed against her by her former husband, Johnny Depp.
Heard, in a post on Instagram, did not reveal the terms of the settlement, which comes after a Virginia jury ordered her to pay $10 million to the Pirates of the Caribbean star.
Amber Heard on settlement
Heard wrote: “I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it has been destroyed”.
She added: “The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimised when they come forward”.
“Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms, I can agree to. I have made no admission. This is not an act of concession,” the actress said.
She added she will not be restricted to speak out going forward.
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History of the case
The jury in June found Depp and Heard had been liable for defamation — however, the jury sided more strongly with the Pirates of the Caribbean” star following an intense six-week trial riding on bitterly contested allegations of domestic abuse.
The case, live-streamed to millions, featured lurid and intimate details about the Hollywood celebrities’ private lives.
Including videos of their altercations, and fights all caught in their private home in attempts to prove their side of the story.
$10 million awarded to Depp
The jury awarded $10 million in damages to Depp after finding that a 2018 newspaper article penned by Heard on her experience of “sexual violence” was defamatory.
In July, Heard asked Judge Penney Azcarate to set aside the jury verdict awarding $10 million to Johnny Depp and declare a mistrial, but the judge denied the request.
The 59-year-old Depp sued Heard over a Washington Post op-ed in which she did not name him, but described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
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Compiled by Sandisiwe Mbhele additional reporting AFP.
