Amber Heard to pay ex-husband Johnny Depp $1 million in settlement of defamation claim

Amber Heard has agreed to pay her former husband Johnny Depp a sum of $1 million to settle his defamation claim against her. The pair divorced in 2017 after two years of marriage. Depp originally sued Heard for a $50 million defamation claim in March 2019, following her op-ed in the Washington Post where she called herself a "public figure who symbolizes domestic abuse."

As Variety reports, the sum is a significant reduction from the $8.35 million she was ordered to pay after a six-week trial in Virginia earlier this year. The payment is expected to come from her insurance carrier. In a statement, Depp’s attorneys said that he would donate the money to charity.

Depp’s attorneys have previously said that the case was “never about the money” for Depp. On Monday, the 36-year-old actress announced on Instagram about the “very difficult decision” of reaching a settlement and shared that she withdrew her appeal of the verdict because she could not bear the “humiliation” of a retrial.

“It is important for me to say I never chose this,” Heard wrote. “I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed.” The payment will reportedly come from her insurance company, not from her own personal funds. Earlier this year in June, a Virginia jury ruled in Depp’s favor on three separate claims of defamation.

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Following the long-running extensive trial and verdict, Heard was sentenced to pay Depp $5 million in punitive damages and $10 million in compensatory damages, with the latter amount being reduced to $350,000 to stay inside the bounds of a statutory cap. Depp was mandated to give Heard $2,000,000, leaving a net sum of $8.35 million in Depp’s favor.

As the report notes, the following month, Heard filed a notice of appeal, with her attorney citing “errors” made by the court. However, the actress has now agreed to withdraw her appeal.

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