Johnny Depp’s lawyers have said the actor’s defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard “was never about the money”.
Just one week after he won his defamation case against his ex-wife, Johnny’s lawyers Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew appeared on Good Morning America to discuss the trial.
During their appearance on the show, the 58-year-old’s legal team said his only interest was “restoring his reputation”.
“As Mr. Depp testified and as we both made clear in our respective closings, this was never about the money for Mr. Depp,” Benjamin said.
These statements come after Amber’s lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft said on the Today show that Amber would “absolutely not” be able to pay the damages awarded to Johnny.
Last week, a jury of five men and two women found the actress guilty of defaming her ex-husband in an op-ed for the Washington Post, which was published in December 2018.
Johnny, 58, launched a $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife in 2019, after she wrote about being an alleged victim of domestic violence in an op-ed.
Following a six-week trial and 13 hours of deliberations, the jury sided with Depp and awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages, and a further $5 million in punitive damages.
However, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate reduced the punitive damages to $350,000, which is the State of Virginia’s legal limit, resulting in total damages of $10.4 million awarded to Johnny.
Amber’s lawyer has since revealed that they plan to appeal the verdict, stating “a number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed, and it cause the jury to be confused.”
The attorney also blamed the verdict on a “number of evidentiary issues”, saying “there was so much evidence that did not come in.”
During the six-week long trial, Amber detailed multiple incidents of alleged abuse, and told the court that “violence became normal” towards the end of their relationship.
However, Johnny testified that he never hit his ex-wife, and claimed that she was the abuser in their relationship.
In court, the 58-year-old said the allegations that he was a “drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat women” have cost him “everything”.
Johnny and Amber first met in 2009 on the set of the film The Rum Diary, and were married in February 2015.
Their divorce was finalised two years later.
