Depp trying again to win libel case

Johnny Depp’s legal team hopes to reverse last year’s verdict in a libel case against a British tabloid that described the actor as a “wife beater.”

His lawyers told Britain’s Court of Appeal Thursday that his exwife Amber Heard did not donate all of the $7 million she received in their divorce settlement as she said she would, but benefited from the public belief that she did so, contending it provided a “considerable boost to her credibility as a person.”

“It’s a false plus to her and a false minus to him,” Depp’s lawyer Andrew Caldecott told the court.

Depp lost the libel case last November after a British court ruled that claims made in a 2018 article in The Sun newspaper describing him as a wife beater were “substantially true.” The Sun is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., who also owns the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper’s defense in the trial, which occurred last July, centered on claims that Depp allegedly turned violent toward Heard on 14 occasions. Depp has repeatedly denied those accusations.

During the trial, Depp described Heard as the aggressor in their relationship.

Heard, 34, and Depp, 57, wed in 2015 and finalized their divorce in 2017. They met on the set of the 2011 comedy-drama “The Rum Diary.”

Following the court’s ruling last fall, Depp’s legal team expressed plans to appeal.

“This decision is as perverse as it is bewildering,” attorney Jenny Afia said at the time. “The judgment is so flawed that it would be ridiculous for Mr. Depp not to appeal this decision.”