Amber Heard Lied About Donating Her $7 Million Divorce Settlement, Johnny Depp’s Legal Team Claims

Amber Heard received $7 million in her divorce settlement from Johnny Depp in 2016, but declared she didn’t want it. At that time she stated, “As described in the restraining order and divorce settlement, money played no role for me personally and never has, except to the extent that I could donate it to charity and, in doing so, hopefully help those less able to defend themselves.”

“As reported in the media, the amount received in the divorce was $7 million and $7 million is being donated. This is over and above any funds that I have given away in the past and will continue to give away in the future...The donation will be divided equally between the ACLU, with a particular focus to stop violence against women, and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles where I have worked as a volunteer for past 10 years.”

"The amount received in the divorce was $7 million and $7 million is being donated."

According to The Daily Mail, Depp’s legal team has proof that Heard failed to fulfill her pledge to donate $3.5 million to Children's Hospital Los Angeles. The hospital produced documents showing that it only received $100,000 from Heard, in 2016. In June 2019, Associate Senior Vice President Candie Davidson-Goldbronn wrote to Heard asking if the hospital would still received the pledged donation in full, pointing out it had received nothing since the original gift. 

“I am inquiring if you have knowledge if CHLA should expect further payment installment(s) on your behalf or if the pledge will not be fulfilled,' Davidson-Goldbronn wrote. 'I appreciate any insights on this matter.”

Depp’s legal team considers this correspondence to be proof that Heard lied repeatedly to the media — and also in court during Depp’s defamation case against the British newspaper The Sun last year. 

In a witness statement dated February 26, 2020, Heard stated: “I remained financially independent from him [Depp] the whole time we were together and the entire amount of my divorce settlement was donated to charity.”

British High Court Judge Andrew Nichol cited the donation in making his decision against Depp, writing: “Her donation of the $7 million to charity is hardly the act one would expect of a gold-digger.”

Heard's attorney, Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, wrote in a statement to The Daily Mail, “Mr. Depp's effort to plant stories in the media criticizing Amber for not yet fulfilling all the donations she pledged to charity is yet another desperate attempt to divert attention from the UK Court's findings relating to allegations of Mr. Depp committing domestic abuse.”

“Amber has already been responsible for seven figures in donations to charitable causes and intends to continue to contribute and eventually fulfil her pledge...However, Amber has been delayed in that goal because Mr. Depp filed a lawsuit against her, and consequently, she has been forced to spend millions of dollars defending Mr. Depp's false accusations against her.”

Amber Heard "intends to continue to contribute and eventually fulfil her pledge."

But, as The Daily Mail points out, Heard pledged the donation in August 2016 and Depp didn’t file his complaint until March 2019 — about two and a half years later.

How important is this discovery? It won't prove that Depp isn't a domestic abuser or that Heard herself is the abusive one. But if Depp can prove that she has lied repeatedly in public as well as in court, it can call her integrity into question, which might be enough to cast reasonable doubt on her allegations against Depp.

The ACLU has so far refused to cooperate with multiple subpoenas and did not respond to The Daily Mail’s questions.