Amber Heard has announced that she will be settling her defamation case with Johnny Depp. She made the announcement on her Instagram, where she shared a post with four separate slides explaining her decision.
The Instagram post was shared this Monday. “After a great deal of deliberation I have made a very difficult decision to settle the defamation case brought against me by my ex-husband in Virginia,” it starts.
“Now I have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to. I have made no admission. This is not an act on concession. There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.”
She explains that her decision was made following her disappointment with the American law system and how it fails to protect women in her situation, in turn, making her life a spectacle and affecting her financially and emotionally. “In the interim I was exposed to a type of humiliation that I simply cannot relive,” she wrote.
Depp’s attorneys also shared a statement, revealing that the settlement involved a $1 million for himself.
"We are pleased to formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp, who made clear throughout this process that his priority was about bringing the truth to light," sais his attorneys, Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez, on a statement to NPR. “The payment of $1M - which Mr. Depp is pledging and will donate to charities - reinforces Ms. Heard's acknowledgement of the conclusion of the legal system's rigorous pursuit for justice. "
In the midst of the Depp v Heard trial in June, the jury mostly sided with Depp, awarding him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. It awarded Heard $2 million in a countersuit. The trial between the two was livestreamed and became a source of entertainment for the world, with people taking sides depending on who they found more likeable.
