Johnny Depp wins defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard

Johnny Depp has won his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard – a jury finding she acted with malice in the Washington Post article she wrote in 2018.

Amber Heard and Johnny Depp at Fairfax County Courthouse, 27 May 2022. Photo: AFP

Depp has won $US15 million ($NZ23.1m) of damages.

Depp, the 58-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean star, sued Heard for US$50 million and argued that she defamed him when she called herself “a public figure representing domestic abuse” in a newspaper opinion piece.

Heard, 36, countersued for US$100 million, saying Depp smeared her when his lawyer called her accusations a “hoax.”

Depp has denied hitting Heard or any woman and said she was the one who turned violent in their relationship.

Depp and Heard met in 2011 while filming The Rum Diary and wed in February 2015. Their divorce was finalized about two years later.

At the centre of the legal case was a December 2018 opinion piece by Heard in the Washington Post in which she made the statement about domestic abuse. The article did not mention Depp by name but his lawyer told jurors it was clear that Heard was referring to him.

During six weeks of testimony, Heard’s attorneys argued that she had told the truth and that her comments were covered as free speech under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.