Amber Heard Says She Has "Always Maintained A Love" For Johnny Depp As His Defamation Lawsuit Against Her Begins In Virginia
Actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard married in 2015 after being a couple for three years. Their marriage was short-lived, though, and they divorced in 2017.
Their divorce was one of the messiest and most public breakups that we have seen in Hollywood recently, and not just because they're A-list celebrities. Initially, the couple's split became headline news because Heard accused Depp of physically abusing her. Heard provided the court with “time-stamped 'crime scene' images, including smashed photo frames, broken glass and wine spilled across hardwood floor and carpets.” However, long story short, she staged the crime scene and completely lied about being abused by her then-husband.
Not to mention, various evidence has come out to show that Heard was in fact the person who was physically abusing Depp and also lied about donating her $7 million divorce settlement. Since then, Depp has filed a defamation lawsuit against Heard, and it officially begins in court today in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Amber Heard Says She Has "Always Maintained a Love" for Johnny Depp
Amber Heard posted a message on her Instagram this weekend announcing that she will "go offline for the next several weeks" as she faces her ex-husband in court.
"Johnny is suing me for an op-ed I wrote in the Washington Post, in which I recounted my experience of violence and domestic abuse," she wrote. "I never named him, rather I wrote about the price women pay for speaking out against men in power."
"I continue to pay that price, but hopefully when this case concludes, I can move on and so can Johnny," she continued. "I have always maintained a love for Johnny and it brings me great pain to have to live out the details of our past life together in front of the world."
Heard also expresses gratitude for "the ongoing support" she has received as of late.
One of the reasons Depp has filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard is because he has had difficulty finding work since the accusations came out against him. Disney dropped Depp from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise just a few days after Heard's op-ed was published.
There's a Virginia anti-Slapp law ("strategic lawsuit against public participation") that Heard's lawyers say will come in handy for her and keep her immune from the libel suit. Apparently this provision protects people from lawsuits when they speak about public or social issues. Additionally, the lawsuit is filed in Virginia, rather than California, because Washington Post's servers are located in Fairfax County.
Depp already lost a similar defamation case in the UK against News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the Sun publication. The executive editor, Dan Wooton, called Depp a "wife-beater" in the headlines, but after a 16-day trial in 2021, the judge found the article to be "substantially true."