Verdict reached in Johnny Depp, Amber Heard defamation trial
FAIRFAX, Va. — A verdict has been reached in Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s bombshell defamation trial.
The seven-person jury reached their determination in Fairfax, Virginia, on Wednesday, the third day of deliberations after about 13 hours of weighing the case.
The verdict is predicted to be learn at 3 p.m.
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star, 58, had sued his 36-year-old ex-wife for $50 million over a Washington Post op-ed that she penned in 2018 describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.”
Heard hit again with a $100 million countersuit, arguing that her career was destroyed after Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman publicly mentioned she had fabricated her home abuse allegations.
Following a six-week trial that was crammed with testimony concerning the alleged abuse Heard says she suffered by the hands of her ex-husband, jurors have been tasked with figuring out whether or not particular passages in her article defamed Depp.
The jury needed to attain a unanimous determination for a verdict to be handed down. Among the questions the jury needed to take into account for the decision was whether or not the op-ed defamed Depp and if Heard acted with “actual malice” when she penned the article.
While the op-ed didn’t truly identify Depp, his attorneys argued he was nonetheless smeared as a result of it clearly referenced him given Heard’s earlier claims of home violence amid their high-profile divorce in 2016.
