But Wait, What Was Depp v. Heard All About?
If you watched the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial that ended last June — or you just watched it play out on social media — you will likely remember some of the buzziest moments of the case between two of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Pirates of the Caribbean actor Johnny Depp and The Danish Girl actress Amber Heard met in 2009 on the set of their movie The Rum Diaries. They began dating in 2012, the same year that Depp separated from his long-term partner Vanessa Paradis.
Depp and Heard got married in 2015. Heard filed for divorce in 2016 and was granted a temporary restraining order, according to NBC. 2016 was also the year that Heard first said Depp physically and verbally abused during their relationship, accusing him of throwing a phone at her and bruising her face.
Depp has consistently denied ever physically abusing Heard.
In 2018, Heard wrote a Washington Post op-ed in which she famously said, “I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.”
In 2019, Depp sued UK tabloid The Sun for libel after the publication referred to him as a “wife beater.” He lost the case after a trial in 2020.
Depp’s $50 million defamation suit against Heard was also submitted in 2019, in which he argued that she defamed him with her Washington Post op-ed. Heard countersued him for $100 million.
In April 2022, Depp and Heard went to trial on their defamation suits against each other, submitting testimony two weeks apart.
On June 1, 2022, the jury unanimously voted in favor of all three of Depp’s defamation claims. Jurors voted in favor of only one of Heard’s claims, according to Time. Depp was awarded $10 million in compensatory claims and $5 million in punitive damages. The jury awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages but $0 in punitive damages, according to NBC.
Here are five surprisingly pro-Amber Heard details that Depp v. Heard points out.
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