The jury awarded $10.35 million in damages to Johnny Depp, and $2 million to Amber Heard.
Washington:
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have settled their acrimonious defamation case, they stated Monday, with the actress agreeing to pay her former husband $1 million over claims he bodily abused her.
In a put up on Instagram, Heard stated she was dropping an enchantment towards the $10 million payout she had been ordered to make by a jury as a result of she “merely can’t undergo” one other trial.
“After quite a lot of deliberation I’ve made a really tough choice to settle the defamation case,” she stated.
“I make this choice having misplaced religion within the American authorized system, the place my unprotected testimony served as leisure and social media fodder,” the 36-year-old stated.
“Now I lastly have a possibility to emancipate myself from one thing I tried to go away over six years in the past and on phrases I can conform to,” she stated. “I’ve made no admission. This isn’t an act of concession.”
In a authorized battle involving fits and countersuits, a Virginia jury discovered Depp and Heard each accountable for defamation — however sided extra strongly with the “Pirates of the Carribean” star following an intense six-week trial using on bitterly contested allegations of home abuse.
The jury awarded $10.35 million in damages to Depp, and $2 million to Heard.
Attorneys for 59-year-old Depp on Monday hailed the settlement.
“We’re happy to formally shut the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp, who made clear all through this course of that his precedence was about bringing the reality to gentle,” attorneys Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez stated.
“The jury’s unanimous choice and the ensuing judgement in Mr. Depp’s favor towards Ms. Heard stay totally in place.
“The cost of $1 million — which Mr. Depp is pledging and can (really) donate to charities — reinforces Ms. Heard’s acknowledgement of the conclusion of the authorized system’s rigorous pursuit for justice.”
– ‘Defended my reality’ –
Depp sued Heard over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Submit in December 2018 by which she described herself as a “public determine representing home abuse.”
The Texas-born Heard didn’t identify Depp within the piece, however he sued her for implying he was a home abuser and sought $50 million in damages.
Heard countersued for $100 million, saying she was defamed by statements made by Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, who instructed the Day by day Mail her abuse claims had been a “hoax.”
The case, livestreamed to tens of millions, featured lurid and intimate particulars concerning the Hollywood celebrities’ personal lives.
Heard’s legal professionals stated following the trial that the actress didn’t have the sources to pay Depp the $10 million in damages.
In her Instagram put up, Heard stated she “defended my reality and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed.
“The vilification I’ve confronted on social media is an amplified model of the methods by which ladies are revictimised when they arrive ahead,” she stated.
“I used to be uncovered to a sort of humiliation that I merely can’t relive.
“Even when my US enchantment is profitable, the perfect end result can be a retrial the place a brand new jury must contemplate the proof once more,” she stated. “I merely can’t undergo that for a 3rd time.”
Leisure outlet Selection stated Heard had initially made claims of home abuse in 2016 throughout her divorce from the “Edward Scissorhands” star.
In a settlement she was granted $7 million and the problem was shelved, with the couple signing non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreements.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
Featured Video Of The Day
Viral: French President’s Speech In Dressing Room After Crew’s World Cup Miss
