Actor Johnny Depp gestures to spectators in court after closing arguments during his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard, in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, May 27, 2022.
Steve Helber | Pool | Reuters
A seven-person jury on Wednesday reached a verdict regarding Johnny Depp’s defamation suit against his former wife Amber Heard.
Depp won his defamation case against Heard on Wednesday and the jury awarded him $15 million in damages.
Depp was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages in his defamation suit. The jury also awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages.
Depp, who was not in court Wednesday due to a previously scheduled work commitment, sued for $50 million in damages over a 2018 opinion-editorial essay in The Washington Post, in which Heard said she had become a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Although the essay never mentioned Depp by name, his attorneys said it indirectly referred to allegations she made against him during their 2016 divorce.
Follow along here for live coverage of the verdict and reaction
Heard countersued for $100 million and said she was only ever violent with Depp in self-defense or defense of her younger sister. Heard’s countersuit, which centered around three statements made by Depp’s former attorney in 2020 to the Daily Mail, in which he described Heard’s allegations of abuse as a “hoax.”
The panel, which began deliberations on Friday, came to its decision after approximately 13 hours over the course of three days. The high-profile trial, which took place over about six weeks in Fairfax County, Virginia, was broadcast across the country and drew numerous headlines.
Actor Amber Heard arrives for closing arguments in the Depp v. Heard trial at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 27, 2022.
Steve Helber | AFP | Getty Images
Defamation claims filed in the U.S. by public figures, such as an actor, are commonly thought of as difficult cases to win due to the higher standard a plaintiff must prove.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1964 that defamation suits brought by notable figures must not only prove the claims were false and caused them damage, but that the person who made the defamatory statement did so with “actual malice.”
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