The jury has reached a verdict in the blockbuster defamation trial between actors and ex-spouses Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
After spending roughly six weeks in the Fairfax, Virginia courtroom, the jury determined that Heard is guilty of defaming her former spouse in a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post.
Heard was found guilty on all counts, as the jury determined Depp had proven all elements of his defamation case and that Heard acted with actual malicious.
Depp had sued Heard for $50 million in connection with the op-ed, and the jury awarded him $15 million total.
The jury specifically awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million dollars in punitive damages, but because Virginia law caps punitive damages at $350,000, Depp was awarded $10.35 million total.
Heard had filed a $100 million countersuit accusing Depp and Depp’s former attorney Adam Waldman of orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her via his lawsuit.
In regards to the countersuit, the jury determined that Heard has also proven elements of defamation against Waldman.
The jury awarded $2 million to Heard in compensatory damages.
The verdict was reached at roughly 1:30 pm ET and was announced at around 3:20 p.m. ET, as Judge Penney Azcarate gave each legal team time to get to the courthouse.
The jury had initially failed to fill out the compensatory damages page on the verdict forms, forcing them back in the deliberation room for a
While Depp was not there for the announcement as he is in the United Kingdom, Heard was in the courtroom when the verdict was read.
On Tuesday, the seven-person jury asked Azcarate whether they should consider Heard’s entire op-ed or just the headline while making their decision.
Azcarate confirmed that the statement they were deliberating was just the headline itself, which said Heard “spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath.”
The trial officially reached its conclusion on Friday after both Heard and Depp’s legal teams delivered their closing arguments, and the jury spent roughly 12 hours 45 mins deliberating their verdict.
Prior to the verdict, the former spouses and their legal teams spent weeks rehashing past arguments and airing secretly recorded videos of each other in what has become one of the biggest celebrity trials in history — especially as it was being streamed live on several platforms.
Depp and Heard met in 2009 on the set of The Rum Diary and were married for two years. During the trial, both claimed that the other abused them throughout their relationship.
Watch above, via Law&Crime.