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Heads up: This report contains descriptions of violence that can be disturbing.
After more than a month of testimony in a court in Virginia, United States, the jury in the defamation case between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has reached a verdict. Johnny Depp won the defamation lawsuit he is bringing against his ex-wife, who said he was a victim of domestic violence.
The jury found that Heard defamed her ex-husband in a 2018 Washington Post article in which she wrote about being “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” In her decision, Heard’s claims are false and defamatory because they specifically addressed her relationship with Depp. The actor will be compensated in US$ 15 million (R$ 24 million).
The jury also rejected Heard’s defamation allegations against Depp, saying they were unsubstantiated. For six weeks, the court heard sordid details of Depp and Heard’s volatile relationship and its unhappy ending.
Depp sued his ex-wife for defamation over the article, though he was not directly cited. Heard, in turn, filed a lawsuit against Depp. The jury concluded that Depp defamed Heard – but it was through his attorney, Adam Waldman, and on only one of the three counts. She will receive $2 million in damages. Here are 10 key moments from the trial.
‘MUTUAL ABUSE’
For some observers, the relationship between Heard and Depp can be summed up in two words: mutual abuse. That was the description used by clinical psychologist Laurel Anderson, a former marriage counselor to Heard and Depp.
Called to testify by Depp’s legal team, Anderson described a shaky relationship, with both parties threatening to pull out of sessions amid angry rows. In her opinion, Heard was often the instigator of these fights.
Depp was “in control” for decades before he met Heard, Anderson said, and did not engage in acts of violence with his ex-partners. “With Heard, it was like a trigger. They engaged in what I considered to be mutual abuse,” she told the jury.
‘LET’S BURN AMBER’
In four days of deposition, Depp was asked about a series of messages and emails that included blatant insults against his ex-wife.
On one occasion, he was asked about a 2013 text exchange with British actor Paul Bettany. “Let’s burn it,” Depp wrote, referring to Heard. “Let’s drown her before we burn her to make sure she’s dead.”
The actor explained to the jury that he was “embarrassed” by the messages, and that they were an attempt at humor based on a film by British comedy group Monty Python.
PERSONALITY DISORDER OR POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS?
Forensic psychologist Shannon Curry, called by Depp’s team, told the jury she believed Amber Heard suffered from two parallel diagnoses: borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder.
Curry said he came to that conclusion after spending about 12 hours with Heard in December 2021, performing mental health exams and reviewing his medical history. Borderline personality disorder is a disease of instability, Curry noted, marked by “a lot of anger, cruelty to people of lesser power, and attention seeking.”
These behaviors are “driven by an underlying fear of abandonment,” she said, after listening to audio played in court, in which Heard pleaded with Depp not to abandon her.
But Curry’s diagnoses were rejected by psychologist Dawn Hughes, who testified on behalf of Heard’s legal team. In contrast, Hughes diagnosed Heard with post-traumatic stress disorder, caused by “Depp’s violence”.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Over the course of the trial, the jury heard two conflicting accounts of Depp’s substance abuse. From Depp’s perspective, he remained sober for much of his relationship with Heard after kicking an opiate addiction in 2014.
But Heard described a different Depp — one who frequently abused alcohol, cocaine and painkillers. “He would pass out, vomit, lose control,” she said. Depp dismissed Heard’s account of his drug use: “Simply untrue.” Her lawyers noted that Heard also drank and sometimes used drugs.
WHO IS THE ‘MONSTER’?
Once again, the jury was presented with two very different portraits of the protagonists of this trial. Heard described as a “monster” a supposedly dark side of her ex-husband, the volatile and violent version of him, which emerged when Depp was intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.
Text messages sent by Depp to his assistants and friends seemed to support this description. “Amber and I were absolutely perfect I locked my little monster in a deep cage and it worked,” he wrote.
But, when testifying, Depp said that “it was an expression he used only to appease his ex-wife in an attempt to avoid conflicts”. When asked why he even used the expression, he replied, “Because I heard it all the time.”
DEPP WITNESS THAT ‘NEVER’ BEAT HEARD
Depp categorically rejected the abuse allegations, telling the jury, “I have never hit Miss Heard, nor have I ever hit a woman in my life.” Depp claimed he suffered at the hands of Heard, who allegedly abused him.
“It could start with a slap, with a shove. [Heard] it needs conflict, it needs violence. It comes out of nowhere.” Depp’s legal team used Heard’s own words — in audio recordings and handwritten notes — to underscore these allegations. On one of the recordings, Heard can be heard admitting to having “beaten” Depp, before make fun of him and call him “baby.” In a letter to Depp, she apologized for freaking out.
A JOURNEY TO AUSTRALIA
The jury heard multiple accounts — some consistent, many contradictory — of a 2015 trip to Australia, where Depp was filming. According to Depp, a tip of his ring finger was cut off during a heated altercation with his ex-wife, in which she threw a bottle of vodka at him, which broke.
The actor told the jury he went into shock and used blood from his wound to write a message to Heard on the wall. “I don’t know what a nervous breakdown looks like, but it’s the closest I’ve ever come. This,” he said.
Heard denied causing the finger injury and accused Depp of sexually abusing her with a bottle of liquor that night. A doctor summoned by Heard’s team disputed Depp’s account, explaining that his description of events was unlikely, largely because her nail remained intact.
AN UNEXPECTED STAR
Depp’s attorney Camille Vasquez emerged as the star of the trial. The young California attorney caught the attention of millions who attended the trial. T-shirts emblazoned with her name and hashtags praising her performance became a topic on social media.
THE PARTICIPATION OF KATE MOSS
British supermodel Kate Moss was added to the witness list at the last minute. Moss, who had a romantic relationship with Depp between 1994 and 1998, was called by the actor’s team in the last week of the trial to refute the rumor alluded to by Heard suggesting that her ex-husband had pushed the model down a ladder in the 1990s. In her brief statement, Moss denied that Depp had pushed her.
‘HUNDREDS OF DEATH THREATS’
On the final day of deposition, Heard made an emotional statement about the persecution he says he has suffered after Depp’s divorce. “I get hundreds of death threats on a regular, even daily basis. Thousands since this trial started. People mocking, mocking my testimony of being assaulted,” she said. “Every day I have to relive the trauma.”
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