The United States actress Amber Heard has settled a defamation suit with her ex-husband, and fellow actor, Johnny Depp by agreeing to pay him $1 million (£820,000).Depp’s lawyers revealed this on Monday in the former couple’s fall-out which has turned into a legal battle, according to BBC.
In June, a Virginia jury mostly sided with Depp finding that Heard had defamed him in an article in which she called herself a victim of abuse.Announcing the settlement earlier today, Heard said the decision was “not an act of concession”.
The actress filed an appeal in the case this month, asking for the jury’s verdict to be upturned or for a new trial completely.But in her statement today, the actress said she had made the choice to settle “having lost faith in the American legal system”.
“Even if my US appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a retrial,” she said. “I simply cannot go through that.”
Depp had filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife for defamation based on 2018 op-ed written by her and published in the Washington Post newspaper.
She described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”, without mentioning Depp.
The six-week-long televised trial attracted widespread public inspection. The former couple, who divorced in 2017, offered different accounts of their five-year relationship, both accusing the other of misbehaviour and violence.
Depp denied his ex-wife’s testimony, in which she claimed he had subjected her to emotional, physical and sexual abuse. The jury sided mostly with Depp, awarding him $15m (£12m) in damages.
The verdict surprised some legal experts, especially as it followed Depp’s loss in a similar case in the UK two years ago.
On Monday, Depp’s legal representatives said in a statement they were glad to “formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr Depp”, adding that the actor would be donating the $1m settlement to a number of charities.
