Amber Heard: Actor Amber Heard and Johnny Depp have been embroiled in an intense legal battle over defamation for years. It has been a highly-scrutinised legal battle beginning 2019. It has now finally reached its end but has had its trials and tribulations. Amber posted a lengthy statement on Instagram and announced her “very difficult decision” to settle the defamation case which was brought against her by her ex-husband.
Decision ‘wasn’t my choice’
Amber says she “never chose” to settle. “After a great deal of deliberation I have made a very difficult decision to settle the defamation case brought against me by my ex-husband in Virginia,” Amber Heard began her statement and notably referred to Johnny Depp as “my ex-husband.” However, Amber staunchly clarified that this decision wasn’t her choice, especially after defending her truth: “It’s important for me to say that I never chose this. I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed.”
The 36-year-old actress also called out the ruthless social media trolling she’s been subjected to trial: “The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimised when they come forward.” Making clear that her decision to settle isn’t admission, she says, “Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to. I have made no admission. This is not an act of concession. There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.”
Charge of domestic abuse
The original defamation lawsuit was filed by Johnny Depp in 2019 for $50 million after Amber claimed in an op-ed that she became a “public figure representing domestic abuse,” though she didn’t mention the 59-year-old actor’s name.
After two years in June 2022, the jury decided against Heard. Amber was ordered to pay $15 million in damages to Depp while the latter was ordered to pay $2 million to Heard. He was found guilty in one count out of three. In 2018, a court in UK proclaimed Depp a wife beater.
‘Lost faith’ in American legal system
Amber in her statement said, “I make this decision having lost faith in the American legal system, where my unprotected testimony served as entertainment and social media fodder. When I stood before a judge in the UK, I was vindicated by a robust, impartial and fair system, where I was protected from having to give the worst moments of my testimony in front of the world’s media, and where the court found that I was subjected to domestic and sexual violence. In the US, however, I exhausted almost all my resources in advance of and during a trial in which I was subjected to a courtroom in which abundant, direct evidence that corroborated my testimony was excluded and in which popularity and power mattered more than reason and due process. In the interim I was exposed to a type of humiliation that I simply cannot re-live.”
Wants to start afresh amid
And now Amber wants to start afresh amid “an arduous and expensive legal process: “Time is precious and I want to spend my time productively and purposefully. For too many years I have been caged in an arduous and expensive legal process, which has shown itself unable to protect me and my right to free speech. I cannot afford to risk an impossible bill – one that is not just financial, but also psychological, physical and emotional. Women shouldn’t have to face abuse or bankruptcy for speaking her truth, but unfortunately it is not uncommon.”
“In settling this case I am also choosing the freedom to dedicate my time to the work that helped me heal after my divorce; work that exists in realms in which I feel seen, heard and believed, and in which I know I can effect change,” she said.
“I will not be threatened, disheartened or dissuaded by what happened from speaking the truth. No one can and no one will take that from me. My voice forever remains the most valuable asset I have,” Heard stated.
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