Talius Dike 
The verdict is out. Johnny Depp has been pronounced victor in a six-week defamation lawsuit trial between the actor and his ex-wife Amber Heard by a seven-member United States jury.
A little refresher
- Johnny Depp and Amber Heard kicked off their relationship in 2012, got engaged in 2014, and married the following year. They separated in 2016, finalizing their divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences in 2017.
- Soon after, the drama began. Johnny Depp sued Amber Heard for defamation and requested $50 million in compensation after she wrote a 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post that suggested the actor domestically abused her. The actress countersued Depp for $100 million.
- They’d had an earlier version of this lawsuit in the UK, where Johnny Depp lost in 2020.
The US jury was comprised of three Asian men, two white men, a Black woman, and an Asian woman. The two alternates included a white woman and an Asian man.
Although Johnny Depp got awarded $15m, Amber Heard received $2 million for defamatory remarks made by Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, who told the Daily Mail that her abuse claims were a “hoax”.
Following her loss, Amber Heard took to social media to express her thoughts:
“The disappointment I feel today is beyond words,” Heard wrote in her 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.”
She went on to further describe her feelings, calling the verdict a “setback” for women around the world, and that she seems to have lost the rights she thought she had as an American.
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