IT’S ‘ALL BECAUSE YOU CARED’
Here’s mud in your streets, Long Island City Depp thanks his ‘unwavering supporters’ after winning defamation trial
Johnny Depp thanked his “most treasured, loyal and unwavering supporters” Tuesday, nearly a week after winning his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.
The actor shared an Instagram video showing fans who lined the streets and held up signs during the trial in Fairfax County, Va.
“We’ve been everywhere together, we have seen everything together,” Depp wrote in an effusive Instagram post. “We have walked the same road together. We did the right thing together, all because you cared.
“And now, we will all move forward together,” he continued. “You are, as always, my employers, and once again I am whittled down to no way to say thank you, other than just by saying thank you. So, thank you.”
Depp, 58, sued Heard, 36, for $50 million over a 2018 op-ed in which she called herself “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” The piece didn’t name Depp, but Heard had previously accused the actor of domestic violence, which he denied.
A seven-member jury said last Wednesday that Depp should receive $15 million in damages. The judge lowered the total to $10.35 million because punitive damages are capped in Virginia.
Heard was awarded $2 million in a $100 million counterclaim she filed over comments made by a Depp attorney that painted her abuse claims as a hoax.
In a statement Thursday, a spokeswoman for Heard said, “As Johnny Depp says he’s ‘moving forward,’ women’s rights are moving backward. The verdict’s message to victims of domestic violence is ... be afraid to stand up and speak out.”
The trial played out over six weeks, with Depp and Heard accusing each other of abuse while denying the other’s claims.
The court stenographer who worked on the trial has since said she observed multiple jurors “dozing off” during the drawnout proceedings.
“It was tough because there was a lot of video deposition, and they’d just sit there and all of a sudden I’d see their head drop,” Judy Bellinger told the Law & Crime Network in an interview published this week.
Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft said on NBC’s “Today” show last week that her client wants to appeal the verdict and has “some excellent grounds” to do so.
“[Depp’s attorneys] were able to suppress the medical records, which were very, very significant because they showed a pattern going all the way back to 2012 of Amber reporting this to her therapist, for example,” Bredehoft said.
“We had significant amount of texts, including from Mr. Depp’s assistants saying, ‘When I told him he kicked you, he cried.’ ”
Heard and Depp met while making the 2011 movie “The Rum Diary” and married in 2015. Heard filed for divorce 15 months later.
Depp previously lost a libel lawsuit in the United Kingdom against the publisher of tabloid The Sun over an article that painted him as a “wife beater.” A High Court judge ruled in 2020 that the claims were “substantially true.”