Johnny Depp Files $50 Million Defamation Lawsuit Against Amber Heard

Pirates of the Caribbean actor Johnny Depp filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, calling her abuse claims an “elaborate hoax” and seeking $50 million in damages.

On Friday, The Blast obtained court documents in which Depp takes issue with an op-ed Heard wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018, titled “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”

“Ms. Heard purported to write from the perspective of ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse’ and claimed that she ‘felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out’ when she ‘spoke up against sexual violence,’” the lawsuit reads.

Although Depp’s attorney admitted Heard never mentioned the actor by name, the lawsuit claims the article “depends on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her.”

The lawsuit calls Heard’s allegations “false” and part of an “elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity” and “advance her career.” In fact, the suit claims Heard is “not a victim of domestic abuse; she is the perpetrator.”

Depp’s lawsuit claims Heard’s own claims were “conclusively refuted by two separate responding police officers, a litany of neutral third-party witnesses, and 87 newly obtained surveillance camera videos.”

Heard claimed Depp attacked her on May 21, 2016. However, Depp claims he received a declaration from a neighbor who claims Heard was “utterly unmarked and uninjured” when they interacted in the week after the alleged incident. Depp also claims two police officers testified they saw “no signs of an injury” on Heard’s face.

After the alleged incident, Heard got a temporary restraining order against Depp because she claimed to “live in fear that Johnny will return to the residence unannounced to terrorize me, physically and emotionally.”

Depp claims Heard once assaulted him by throwing a vodka bottle at him a month into their marriage. The glass bottle injured his hand, and he needed surgery to have it repaired, according to the suit.

Depp claims Heard’s op-ed damaged his career, noting that it was published four days before Disney dropped him from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

“Ms. Heard also knew that her elaborate hoax worked: as a result of her false allegations against Mr. Depp, Ms. Heard became a darling of the #MeToo movement, was the first actress named a Human Rights Champion of the United Nations Human Rights Office, was appointed ambassador on women’s rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, and was hired by L’Oreal Paris as its global spokesperson,” Depp’s attorney said in a statement to The Blast.

Heard and Depp were married for 15 months before she filed for divorce in May 2016. The divorce was finalized in January 2017, and Heard received a $7 million settlement from Depp, which she donated to the Children’s Hostpial Los Angeles and charities helping women victimized by domestic violence.

Depp denied the allegations of domestic violence in a 2018 GQ U.K. interview.

“The thing that hurt me is being presented as something that you’re really as far away from as you could possibly get, you know?” the actor said at the time.