A year on from Depp v Heard, what’s changed?
Nick Wallis, the only journalist at both the UK and US trials, reveals how this case has reverberated around the world
THREE YEARS AGO , a High Court judge in the UK listened to the testimony of Amber Heard and decided she was a victim of her former husband Johnny Depp’s violence. But then last year, in the US, a court of seven jurors decided she was making it all up.
I had a ringside seat for both trials and watched as Heard went from being a vindicated survivor to a national hate figure, jeered and catcalled as she arrived for court. On the final day of the US trial, Heard described how it had affected her, telling jurors, ‘People want to kill me… Every single day, I have to relive the trauma. My hands shake, I wake up screaming, I have to live with the trauma and the damage done to me.’
Was it fair to make Heard recount her graphic allegations of sexual abuse on live TV, directly in the eyeline of the man who was allegedly responsible? The judge at Fairfax Circuit Court in Virginia thought so. Depp v Heard became known as the first ‘trial by Tiktok’, getting billions of views as content creators repurposed courtroom footage to paint Heard as a gold-digging fraud out to ruin a good man’s reputation.
A year on, it’s clear the impact of this case has reverberated around the world. Dr Charlotte Proudman, a barrister, believes the jury’s verdict has had a devastating impact in the UK. ‘I have heard first-hand from women who have been gaslit by their partners and told, “You’re pulling an Amber,” to insinuate that the abuse they suffered is fiction,’ she said. ‘Others have asked me whether they will be humiliated in the way Heard was in court. It has undoubtedly deterred survivors from coming forward and reporting abuse, and discouraged them from giving live evidence.’
Meanwhile, men’s rights campaigners are pleased. Mark Brooks OBE, chair of Mankind charity, thinks there has been a ‘really positive effect’, ‘both in terms of more male victims of abuse coming forward and also with society better recognising that domestic abuse happens to men too’.
Depp and Heard’s celebrity has made their volatile relationship and toxic falling-out a touchstone battle in the endless culture wars. It will be used (in America, at least) as a riposte to those who think we should #Believeallwomen, but while the legal fight is over, there’s much more to come. Heard remains a spokesperson for the American
Civil Liberties Union on gender-based violence and has vowed to keep telling her ‘truth’. Gloria Steinem and more than 100 women’s organisations in the US have backed Heard, and she’ll resume her role as Mera in Aquaman 2 – a quiet but important endorsement. Meanwhile, she’s reportedly moved to Madrid with her daughter for a quieter life.
As for Depp, his first movie for three years will open the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. High-profile men and women, including Sir Paul Mccartney, Helena Bonham Carter and Rihanna (an abuse survivor), are lining up to support him.
Reporting on this story has given me the sneaking realisation that no one has a monopoly on truth – neither a High Court judge nor a seven-strong jury from Virginia. Whether Heard has put feminism back years or been woefully wronged by a system rigged against her, I’ll leave you to decide.
‘Depp v Heard: The Unreal Story’ by Nick Wallis (Bath Publishing) is out now