The Johnny Depp Amber Heard Defamation Trial

The heated feud between actress Amber Heard and the Hollywood icon, Johnny Depp, was a battle that shook the entire entertainment industry. Heard accusing Depp of physical and sexual abuse, Depp accusing Heard of the same, it was a rollercoaster for the two, and of course, for the viewers. Here are the events leading up to, and involved in, the trial.

History

In 2012, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard started dating, a power couple one might say. Not long after, in 2014, Heard was spotted wearing a ring, and People Magazine reported that Depp and Heard had gotten engaged. In 2015, they decided to tie the knot, in a private wedding ceremony held at their house in LA. The very next year, Heard filed for divorce, accusing Depp of physical abuse. She claimed that the actor physically abused her while being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Depp denied these allegations and claimed, through his representatives, that she was, "attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse." Heard got the divorce and a $7 million settlement, which she donated to charity, according to People Magazine.

From here, things started to escalate. In 2018, Heard wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post, which said that she had been abused. Seeing this, Depp immediately took action and sued Heard for $50 million in a defamation case. The lawsuit stated that Heard "is not a victim of domestic abuse, she is a perpetrator," and denied that Depp ever abused her. Instead, the suit said that Heard’s allegations were just part of a "hoax to generate positive publicity" for the Actress Amber Heard. Amber Heard claimed Depp allegedly threw her through a ping pong table and dragged her through the broken glass and she still had scars on her arms and feet from that incident.

In 2020, with the case still going on, a few recordings were released in which Heard admitted to ‘hitting’ Depp. Heard said, “I'm sorry that I didn't hit you with a proper slap across the face with a proper slap, but I was just hitting you, it was not punching. Babe, you're not punched.” On July 7^th, Depp fought and sued the News Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Sun, in court over a 2018 article in which they called him a "wife beater" and defamed him in reference to Depp and Heard's former marriage. Depp sued the publisher and The Sun's executive editor Dan Wootton for libel but the case was lost. From then on out, Depp kept being denied permission to appeal against the High Court ruiling.

April 11 2021, Depp and Heard’s $100 Million libel suit commenced. Heard’s laywer argued that the op-ed his client wrote in The Washington Post was nothing more than her expressing a social issue through the right of her freedom of speech. Depp took the stand in court and claimed that Heard had a ‘need for violence’ during the time they were in a relationship. Many accusations involving physical and sexual abuse were brought up in their disturbing entirety during the courtroom sessions.

Conclusion

With the ongoing Heard versus Depp trial and new evidences being brought up each day, the viewers are only left with questions. Who is telling the truth? Who is actually at fault? Is either of them psychiatrically unstable? These questions will hopefully be answered with the conclusion of this trial, and the guilty party receiving the appropriate punishment.