Johnny Depp ‘to donate $1m’ of wife defamation case settlement to charity

Movie star Johnny Depp is reported to be planning to donate $200,000 each to five different charities out of the settlement from his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard.

The court had in December last year ordered the Aquaman star Heard to pay more than $10m in damages to the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star following his successful defamation case against Heard.

On the other hand, Depp was ordered to pay Heard $2m following her countersuit accusing him of defamation after his lawyer called her abuse claims a “hoax”.

Depp filed a $50m defamation lawsuit against Heard in March 2019, accusing her of implying he abused her during their relationship in her 2018 op-ed for The Washington Post, in which she discussed her experiences of sexual assault and domestic abuse.

A Virginia jury ruled in favour of Depp on 1 June 2022.

Depp’s lawyers described the settlement as formally “closing the door on this painful chapter for Mr Depp, who made clear throughout this process that his priority was about bringing the truth to light.”

Heard posted a lengthy Instagram statement that said she had agreed to settle to avoid yet another “arduous and expensive legal process”.

She said that she had exhausted “almost all” of her resources on the trial, writing: “I make this decision having lost faith in the American legal system, where my unprotected testimony served as entertainment and social media fodder.

“I cannot afford to risk an impossible bill – one that is not just financial but also psychological, physical and emotional.”

The US ruling came two years after Depp lost his libel battle against the publisher of The Sun newspaper over an article that referred to him as a “wife beater”. Depp’s bid to appeal the ruling in March 2021 was also rejected.

Heard, who speaks fluent Spanish, has announced that she had permanently relocated to Madrid with her two-year-old daughter.

The five charities Depp will be making the donations to are the Make-A-Film Foundation, Red Feather, The Painted Turtle, the Tetiaroa Society, and the Amazonia Fund Alliance.

The Make-A-Film Foundation works with film industry talent to grant wishes to children with serious or life-threatening medical conditions. Red Feather was established to develop housing solutions for indigenous communities in America, while The Amazonia Fund Alliance aims to protect and preserve indigenous communities in the Amazon.