Johnny Depp is one of the greatest actors in Hollywood and is the recipient of several awards and was the driving force behind several iconic characters on the silver screen. In 2015, Johnny Depp married Aquaman actor Amber Heard and the two ultimately ended their marriage in 2017. And now Johnny Depp has slapped a 50 million USD lawsuit on his ex-wife for public defamation. What happened between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp? Read on for a complete and detailed timeline:
2009
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard met for the first time on the set of “The Rum Diary” in 2009. Johnny Depp played a journalist, Paul Kemp who falls in love with Chenault, played by Amber Heard.
2011-2012
Johnny Depp separated from his partner, Vanessa Paradis with whom he had two children, John Cristopher and model, Lily-Rose Depp. Amber Heard broke up with her partner Tasya van Ree. Heard and Depp started dating “around the end of 2011 or the start of 2012”, as reported by Insider.
2014
2014 saw the engagement of the two actors reported by People Magazine. Johnny Depp himself confirmed it in an interview with The Daily Mail.
2015
The couple got married in a private ceremony in their Los Angeles abode with their close friends and family and had a grand event on Depp’s private island in the Bahamas.
2016
The whirlwind marriage started to deteriorate just as quickly as it started. May 27, 2016 saw Amber Heard run into a courthouse with a purple bruise on her face as she filed for a restraining order against Depp. She cited that Depp has physically abused her through the course of their relationship and that she got the bruise mark from a recent incident where Depp threw a phone at her face. A police spokesperson told People magazine that the allegations by Heard were baseless. Depp rebutted through his legal representatives that his ex-wife was “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.”
Depp and Heard 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 reported by Vulture.
Due to the absence of a prenuptial arrangement, Heard received 7 million dollars from Depp as part of her divorce settlement, which she donated to a children’s hospital.
2017
The couple’s divorce was finalised and their marriage was officially over.
2018
Amber Heard wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post detailing how abusers were shielded by prestigious institutions and the treatment of women in domestic abuse lawsuits. Depp’s name was never mentioned. Disney announced that it was dropping Depp as Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Caribbean.
2019
Johnny Depp slapped a USD 50 million lawsuit against Heard for defamation. The filing said that it was all part of her “elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity”, after which Heard detailed several instances when she was abused physically and verbally.
July, 2020
The Sun Magazine from News Group Newspapers published an article in 2018 labelling Depp as a “wife beater”. The actor filed a lawsuit against the publisher and the executive editor. Winona Ryder and Vanessa Paradis both gave statements in favour of Depp. The trial went on for three weeks where he alleged that Heard had affairs when she was still married, which was denied by the actress.
November, 2020
The court ruled against Depp and that Sun Magazine was justified in calling him “wife beater”. The actor was then asked to leave his role as Grindelwald from the Fantastic Beasts franchise. The Hollywood Reporter claimed that Depp would be fully compensated with an 8 figure sum.
March, 2021
Depp’s appeal to contest the High Court’s ruling by the Court of Appeals was denied, for the second time.
April, 2022
Depp and Heard’s USD 100 million lawsuit for defamation started on April 11 in Fairfax, Virginia. Stars like Paul Bettany, from WandaVision, Elon Musk, James Franco and Ellen Barkin among several stars are testifying in court, reported by Page Six. The case was initiated with powerful opening statements from Ben Chew and J. Benjamin Rottenborn who represented Johnny Depp and Amber Heard respectively.
Depp has testified about his experiences growing up with an abusive mother, his struggles with substance abuse and his tumultuous relationship with Heard. Depp acknowledged in his testimony that he and Heard had arguments during their relationship but said, “Never did I myself reach the point of striking Ms. Heard in any way nor have I ever struck any woman in my life.”
During six weeks of testimony, Heard’s attorneys argued that she had told the truth and that her comments were covered as free speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Throughout the case, jurors listened to recordings of the couple’s fights and saw graphic photos of Depp’s bloody finger. He said the top of the finger was severed when Heard threw a vodka bottle at him in 2015.
Heard denied injuring Depp’s finger and said Depp sexually assaulted her that night with a liquor bottle. She said she struck him only to defend herself or her sister. Testimony was livestreamed widely on social media, drawing large audiences to hear details about the couple’s troubled relationship.
June 2, 2022
A Virginia jury on Wednesday ruled that actor Amber Heard defamed ex-husband Johnny Depp in a widely watched six-week trial that featured explicit and graphic evidence and testimony detailing the former Hollywood couple’s soured relationship. The jury also ruled in favor of Heard in some aspects of her counter-suit against Depp. The jury awarded Depp USD 15 million in damages from Heard. The panel awarded Heard USD 2 million in damages.
