No winner: Jury finds Heard, Depp liable for defamation

A jury on Wednesday found both Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard liable for defamation claims.

The jury found Amber liable in the libel lawsuit filed by Depp and awarded $15 million total in damages.

The jury also found Depp liable for defaming Heard and fined him $2million.

The verdicts were given today in a Fairfax Virginia Court.

Depp sued his ex-wife, accusing her of fabricated claims that she was abused by him before and during their brief marriage.

The claim arose over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”

Though Depp was not named in the article, he claims it cost him lucrative acting roles.

Heard countersued her ex-husband for defamation over statements Depp’s attorney made about her abuse claims, describing it a hoax.

Weighing the claims, a jury found that both of the exes defamed each other.

Heard kept her eyes down as the verdict was read. Depp was not present in court. He is at present in the UK.

The verdict could help Depp rehabilitate his image — at least that’s his hope — after a televised trial that turned into a spectacle of a vicious marriage.

Testimony during the six-week trial has included lurid details of their short and volatile marriage. Heard testified that Depp physically or sexually assaulted her more than a dozen times.

Depp said he never struck Heard, that she concocted the abuse allegations, and that she was the one who physically attacked him, multiple times.