Earlier this month, the court presented its verdict in the high-profile defamation lawsuit filed by Johnny Depp, against his ex-wife Amber Heard over an op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post in 2018. The jury awarded Johnny a total compensation of $10.35 million. The jury also awarded Amber Heard $2 million in compensatory damages on a counterclaim by Johnny’s lawyer.
Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez, the lawyers backing Johnny’s case, recently appeared for an interview on Good Morning America and hinted at a multi-million-dollar twist. The host, George Stephanopoulos, asked if there was any chance for a settlement where Amber forgoes the appeal and Johnny waives off the monetary damages.
Chew, highlighting the prudency, said, “We obviously cannot disclose attorney-client communication.” He added that for Johnny, “It was never about money.” “This was about restoring his reputation, and he had done that.”
Watch the full conversation here:
The lawyers, Chew and Vasquez, also said that social media played no role in the verdict and that the decision was made by the jury based on the evidence presented on both sides. And according to Vasquez, the decision was “overwhelmingly in Mr Depp’s favour.”
Spilling out the details on her modus-operandi, Vasquez said, “Something I focused on, something we focused on was using her words against her. And it was very important to us that every question that was asked was tied to something she had said previously.”
Johnny and Amber first got to know each other on the sets of Rum Diary in 2009. The actors started dating each other and eventually got married in 2015. In 2016, Amber filled for a divorce and alleged that Johnny, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, physically abused her.
The couple got divorced in 2017 and in 2018, Amber published an op-ed claiming to have been a victim of domestic abuse. She did not name Johnny directly in the article that got published in The Washington Post. The article became the focal point of the defamation lawsuit filed by Johnny.
