Vulture
On Monday, seven years after Amber Heard first accused Johnny Depp of assaulting her, Heard, 35, and Depp, 58, will come face-to-face with each other in a Virginia courtroom over allegations that Heard defamed Depp; he is suing her for $50 million over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed she wrote titled “Opinion: Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” In response, Heard filed a $100 million defamation counterclaim against Depp. The defamation trial, which will feature other famous actors called to testify, will air on Court TV. Here’s how we got here and what to expect once the trial kicks off on April 11, 2022.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s romantic relationship was brief compared to their protracted legal battles. The two met and began a relationship on the set of Depp’s movie The Rum Diary in 2009 when Heard was 23 and Depp was 46. They subsequently married in 2015, legally in California, and then again ceremoniously on Depp’s private island in the Bahamas.
Almost as quickly as the marriage started, it was over. In May 2016, 15 months later, Heard filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. She filed a restraining order against Depp, accusing him of hitting her with a phone. She appeared days later at the Los Angeles courthouse with a bruised cheek and said in court papers that Depp had been “verbally and physically abusive” to her during the entirety of their relationship. She described two recent alleged incidents of assault by Depp in her court papers — one occurred on her birthday when Depp allegedly threw a magnum-size bottle of Champagne at the wall and then grabbed her “by the hair and violently shoved me to the floor,” and another happened a month later, where he allegedly grabbed her cell phone, “wound up his arm like a baseball pitcher and threw the cell phone at me striking my cheek and eye with great force,” according to a declaration submitted by Heard in the Los Angeles court. She also submitted pictures of her bruised face.
Depp vehemently denied he ever struck Heard, and the police who initially investigated Heard’s claims said they found no evidence of a crime. Instead, Depp accused Heard in his court papers of “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.”
Heard’s initial request for a temporary restraining order against Depp was granted, but on the eve of their civil trial over extending the restraining order, Heard and Depp announced they had settled their differences. They released a joint statement that said, “Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm.”
As part of the divorce settlement, Depp gave Heard $7 million, as the couple had no prenup. Heard subsequently announced that she would be donating the money to the ACLU and to Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, saying at the time it was to help others “less able to defend themselves.”
