Amber Heard Claims Johnny Depp Cost Her $50 Million
Amber Heard claims that she lost $50 million dollars because of Johnny Depp and that's not even the end of it.
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When most trials conclude with a verdict, they largely are over and done with. That is certainly not the case with the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp defamation trial that captured headlines around the world and dominated the news cycle for weeks. Now some 6,000 pages of court documents relating to the dramatic case in which both Amber Heard and Johnny Depp accused each other of defamation have been unsealed, with predictably shocking results. Among many, many revelations from the documents, it seems that Amber Heard claimed that Johnny Depp had cost her a dollar amount in the region of $50 million dollars because of his alleged defamatory statements.
Per The Daily Beast, pre-trial documents used by the legal teams of both Amber Heard and Johnny Depp have been opened to public examination and are resulting in some interesting discoveries. For one thing, Amber Heard claims that she suffered financial losses in the amount of $47-50 million over the course of three to five years due to Johnny Depp making disparaging statements about her; presumably, the claim is based on the idea that the Aquaman actor lost work and/or endorsements. Interestingly, the document also listed a number of other actors that Amber Heard presumably felt were comparable to her in terms of popularity, box office appeal, or salary expectations. The actors included her co-star Jason Momoa, Zendaya, Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, and Ana de Armas. All of these actors are either the leads of large franchise films (like Wonder Woman and Star Trek) or have their own television shows (like Zendaya) or both (Jason Momoa).
Even more interestingly, while Amber Heard claimed that she had suffered these financial losses because of Johnny Depp, the unsealed documents also revealed she had refused to accept millions of dollars during the pair’s divorce hearings. Specifically, Amber Heard had refused to accept money from Johnny Depp’s salary from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales; as the film was shot and produced during their marriage, it made those earnings communal assets. Variety notes that Johnny Depp was paid $33 million for the preceding Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, so he was likely paid somewhat more for the fifth movie in the franchise (which he has yet to return to).
Ultimately, the presiding Judge Penney S. Azcarate ruled to exclude any evidence from the divorce in the Virginia defamation trial. The verdict ultimately resulted in Amber Heard being found guilty in three counts of defamation and Johnny Depp in one. The jury ordered Depp to pay Heard $2 million in damages, while the latter is currently appealing both the verdict and the approximately $10 million in damages she was ordered to pay. Amber Heard recently declared bankruptcy and continues to maintain the verdict was unfairly determined by the jury, including a previous claim that one of the jurors was misrepresented and that a mistrial should be declared. Judge Azcarate dismissed that motion and ordered that Amber Heard post a $10.35 million bond in order to appeal the verdict.
