Amber Heard announces decision to settle Johnny Depp defamation case

Amber Heard says she is settling her defamation case with ex-husband Johnny Depp.

This means that Heard, 36, is no longer appealing the verdict of the defamation case brought against her by Depp, 59, in which a jury found that Heard defamed Depp and awarded him more than $10 million in damages.

NBC News reached out to Heard for a statement.

“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 wrote in a statement shared on Instagram on Dec. 19. “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.”

She wrote about the “vilification” she had faced on social media during their contentious trial earlier this year, which was closely followed by the media and sparked strong opinions on social media, where Heard was often the target of online vitriol.

Heard also compared her experience with the American legal system to a 2020 libel trial in the United Kingdom, which focused around headlines in “The Sun” newspaper calling Depp a “wife beater.” Depp lost that libel trial, with the judge in the case finding the allegations printed in The Sun to be “substantially true,” according to the BBC.

“When I took before a judge in the U.K., 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,” Heard said in her recent statement.

“In the U.S., however, I exhausted almost all my resources in advance of and during a trial in which I was subject 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,” she continued.

“In the interim I was exposed to a type of humiliation that I simply cannot re-live,” she wrote. “Even if my U.S. appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a re-trial where a new jury would have to consider the evidence again. I simply cannot go through that for a third time.”

Heard and Depp were married from 2015 to 2017. In 2018, Heard published an op-ed in The Washington Post about being the victim of domestic abuse. While Depp was not named in the piece, his legal team said in a complaint he was the implied subject.

Depp denied all allegations of abuse, and in 2019, he filed a $50 million lawsuit against Heard for defamation.

In June 2022, a seven-person jury unanimously found “clear and convincing evidence" that Heard had defamed Depp.

The jury also found in favor of one count of Heard’s counterclaim, saying Depp and his legal team defamed her by launching a “smear campaign,” and was awarded $2 million in damages.

Heard filed for appeal in July 2021, with a spokesperson for Heard saying, “We believe the court made errors that prevented a just and fair verdict consistent with the First Amendment. We are therefore appealing the verdict.”

In her recent statement, Heard opened up about her decision to settle the defamation case.

“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,” she wrote. “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.”

She added that “time is precious” and said she wants to spend her 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,” she wrote. “I cannot afford to risk an impossible bill — one that is not just financial but also psychological, physical and emotional.”

After Heard shared her Instagram post, Depp's attorneys Camille Vasquez and Ben Chew issued a statement: "We are pleased to formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp, who made clear throughout this process his intent to bring the truth to light. This was never about the money. The jury’s unanimous decision and the judgment in his favor against Ms. Heard remain fully in place, and the payment of $1M reinforces her acknowledgment of the legal system’s rigorous pursuit for justice."

This article was originally published on TODAY.com