Amber Heard and Johnny Depp have reached an out of court settlement which ends the former married couple’s defamation case in the United States.
“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,” Heard posted on Instagram on Monday.
“It’s important for me to say that I never chose this,” the Aquaman and All The Boys Love Mandy Lane actor added. “I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed.”
Depp’s lawyers issued a statement saying they were pleased to “formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp”, adding that Heard had agreed to pay the Hollywood star $1m through her insurance company, which he would donate to charities.
The settlement means Heard will not have to pay $8.35m stemming from the summer’s Virginia defamation trial in which the jury found in favour of Depp, who sued Heard over an op-ed she wrote about abuse for The Washington Post.
Heard counter-sued over prior claims by Depp’s lawyers that her allegations were a hoax and was awarded $2m in damages by the jury. The settlement also ends an appeal Heard lodged following the Virginia trial ruling.
Heard wrote on Instagram, “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. 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.
“This is not an act of concession. There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.”
Heard said she had “lost faith” in the American legal system and compared it to the “robust, impartial and fair system” in the UK, where Depp lost a defamation case in 2020 against The Sun after he sued the newspaper for calling him a “wife beater”.
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