The mud fight between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Danger was just about to be forgotten when the next round was already heralded. The Hollywood star has appealed part of the jury’s verdict in the defamation trial between him and his ex-wife Heard. The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star’s legal team submitted the application to an appeals court in Fairfax County, Virginia, US media reported on Thursday (local time). The jury’s decision that Depp should pay Heard $2 million in damages was flawed, the attorneys in the document allege.
After a six-week defamation trial, in which the former spouses had accused themselves of domestic violence, the jury largely sided with Depp in early June – but also agreed with Heard on some points. The actress Depp has to pay over ten million dollars in damages for defamation. Depp, in turn, owes her $2 million after the jury’s decision for statements by his ex-attorney Adam Waldman that allegedly damaged Heard’s reputation.
In a 2020 newspaper interview, Waldman described allegations of abuse made by Heard as fraudulent. The actress took it as defamation. Depp argued that he was not responsible for his lawyer’s statements. Heard is also opposed to the guilty verdict, according to which she would have to pay Depp a good ten million dollars. In July, she initially failed with an application to have the judgment overturned. An appeal is now pending. The court made a mistake and thus prevented a fair judgment, argues Heard’s team.
At the core of the civil lawsuit filed by Depp was a comment published by the Washington Post in 2018 in which Heard described himself as a victim of domestic violence. Depp saw himself branded as a victim of false testimony and sued for defamation for $50 million in damages. Heard countered with a $100 million claim. She claimed that Depp’s lawyer Waldman had damaged her reputation with a smear campaign.