Verdict reached in Johnny Depp, Amber Heard defamation trial

A verdict has been reached in Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s bombshell defamation trial.

The seven-person jury reached its decision in Fairfax, Virginia, on Wednesday, the third day of deliberations after about 13 hours of weighing the case.

The verdict is expected to be read at 3pm, reported the New York Post.

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 back with a $100 million countersuit, arguing that her career was destroyed after Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman publicly said she had fabricated her domestic abuse allegations.
 

Following a six-week trial that was filled with testimony about the alleged abuse Heard says she suffered at the hands of her ex-husband, jurors were tasked with determining whether specific passages in her article defamed Depp.
 

The jury had to reach a unanimous decision for a verdict to be handed down. Among the questions the jury had to consider for the verdict was whether the op-ed defamed Depp and if Heard acted with “actual malice” when she penned the article.

While the op-ed didn’t actually name Depp, his attorneys argued he was still smeared because it clearly referenced him given Heard’s previous claims of domestic violence amid their high-profile divorce in 2016.

This story appeared in the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.