Amber Heard appeals $10 mn Johnny Depp’s defamation verdict

Actress Amber Heard has appealed the order by a Virginia court that requires her to pay ex-husband, actor Johnny Depp $10 million in damages for allegedly defaming him, reported The Guardian. On Thursday, she filed an appeal in the Fairfax county circuit court through her lawyers stating that she means to appeal the ruling, and also rulings made after the verdict, in which judge rejected her request for a fresh trial.

A spokesperson for Heard issued a statement saying. “We believe the court made errors that prevented a just and fair verdict consistent with the first amendment. We are therefore appealing the verdict. While we realize today’s filing will ignite the Twitter bonfires, there are steps we need to take to ensure both fairness and justice.”

A defamation trial involving an opinion piece Heard wrote in the Washington Post in 2018, in which she alleged domestic abuse without naming Depp, concluded early last month. It was mostly favourable to Depp, he was also fined $2 million after one of the his lawyers called Heard’s allegations a hoax.

Heard and Depp, who met while filming together the 2009 movie ‘The Rum Diary’. They began dating in 2011 and married after dating for four years in 2015. But next year, she filed for divorce, alleging mental and physical abuse.

Earlier, another highly-publicised defamation suit filed by Depp against UK tabloid The Sun in 2018 that called him a wife-beater concluded in his defeat in 2020. The judge found he allegations “substantially true”.