Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard has been delayed until 2022.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star is currently suing his ex-wife for defamation, after she wrote about being an alleged victim of domestic violence in an op-ed for the Washington Post in December 2018.
While Johnny’s name was excluded from the piece, his legal team have argued that the op-ed implied that he “perpetrated domestic violence against her”.
The trial was set to take place this May after several delays, but Fairfax County Circuit Court judge Bruce White has since pushed it back until April 11th, 2022.
The jury trial is scheduled to last for 16 days.
Johnny’s defamation suit against Amber is separate to his libel case against The Sun newspaper.
The actor launched legal action against The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers, after they published an article in 2018 that labelled him a “wife beater”.
The case led to a three-week High Court trial in July 2020, which shed light on Johnny and Amber’s rocky marriage – which came to an end in 2016.
In court, the 57-year-old vehemently denied being physically abusive towards his ex-wife, but NGN defended the article’s publication by trying to prove that he was.
Johnny ended up losing the case, after a High Court judge found the article was “substantially true”.
However, the actor’s legal team have applied for permission to appeal the ruling, which will be heard in March.
Amber filed for divorce from Johnny in 2016, one year after the couple tied the knot.
At the time, the actress obtained a temporary restraining order against him, and alleged that he was verbally and physically abusive towards her – claims Johnny has vehemently denied.
The pair eventually settled their divorce out of court in August 2016, and issued a joint statement which read: “Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm.”
