Amber Heard on Monday announced that she will settle the multimillion-dollar defamation case by her ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Heard wrote in an Instagram post,
It is important for me to say I never chose this.
I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed…”
According to The Daily Beast,
The news comes just months after a televised seven-week trial, where jurors found that Heard defamed Depp after identifying herself as a domestic abuse survivor in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed—ruling that she now must pay him over $10 million in damages.
The Virginia jury also awarded the Aquaman actress $2 million in compensatory damages after finding she was defamed when Depp’s ex-attorney, Adam Waldman, falsely described her domestic violence claims as a “hoax.”
Heard was also accused of domestic violence during the trial insists that her decision to settle the case is not “an act of concession” or an admission of guilt.
There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward…“
Heard on Monday said that during the U.K. trial, she was
vindicated by a robust, impartial and fair system, where I was protected from having to give the worst moments of my testimony in front of the world’s media, and where the court found that I was subjected to domestic and sexual violence.”
She said she suffered
a type of humiliation that I simply cannot re-live…
I simply cannot go through that for a third time. I cannot afford to risk an impossible bill —one that is not just financial, but also psychological, physical and emotional.
I will not be threatened, disheartened or dissuaded by what happened from speaking the truth. No one can and no one will take that from me. My voice forever remains the most valuable asset I have.”
Heard’s decision to withdraw her appeal after settling with Depp out of court effectively ends the case that spurred online feuds over the summer.
(Photos, YouTube; via The Daily Beast)
