Johnny Depp loses his U.K. libel case
LONDON >> Johnny Depp lost his high-stakes libel case Monday against The Sun tabloid newspaper for labeling him a “wife beater,” as a British judge said he believed the actor had abused ex-wife Amber Heard to such an extent that she frequently feared for her life.
In a decision widely cheered by campaigners against domestic abuse, Justice Andrew Nicol said the defendants proved during the trial in London that their allegations against Depp were “substantially true.” Depp’s lawyers said it would be “ridiculous” if the actor didn’t appeal the decision.
Over the course of nearly three weeks this summer, Nicol heard lurid — and irreconcilable — accounts from Depp and Heard in which each accused the other of abuse.
“I have found that the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms. Heard by Mr. Depp have been proved to the civil standard,” Nicol wrote in his ruling.
In arguably one of the biggest English libel trials of the 21st century, Depp sued News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that accused him of assaulting fellow actor Heard.
The ruling deals a blow to Depp’s reputation that could imperil his career, which has seen the actor take the lead in some of the most popular family movies in recent times, from “Edward Scissorhands” to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise. That reputational cost clearly comes with an indeterminate financial cost on top of the several millions pounds in legal costs he will likely be required to pay following Monday’s ruling.
A lawyer for Depp, 57, described the decision as “perverse as it is bewildering.”
“The judgment is so flawed that it would be ridiculous for Mr. Depp not to appeal this decision,” Jenny Afia said in a statement.
An attorney for Heard, meanwhile, said the verdict was “not a surprise” for anyone who followed the trial.
The Sun called the decision a “stunning victory for press freedom.”
Depp and Heard met on the set of the 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary” and married in Los Angeles in 2015. They separated the following year and divorced in 2017.