The trial for Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard is currently underway in Virginia.
Depp sued Heard in March 2019, alleging a column Heard wrote in washington post on domestic violence was libelous and asked for $50 million in damages. Heard has filed a $100 million counterclaim.
The process began with jury selection on April 11, 2022 in Fairfax, Virginia. Heard’s witnesses are expected to include James Franco and Elon Musk.
Here’s a timeline of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s relationship, breakup, and court battles, from when they are said to have started dating to the last trial:
2012: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard start dating
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are believed to have started dating that year, after Depp split from his longtime partner, French actress Vanessa Paradis. Depp and Paradis have two children: a daughter named Lily-Rose and a son named Jack.
Heard and Depp are believed to have met on the set of the 2011 film. the rum diaryin which both starred.
March 2014: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard get engaged
Johnny Depp confirms that he and Amber Heard are engaged, after a couple of months of speculation. “The fact that I’m wearing a girl’s ring on my finger is probably a dead giveaway,” he says while promoting the film. Transcendence. “Not very subtle.”
February 2015: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard marry
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp get married. According People magazine, they had two ceremonies: the first at Depp’s home in Los Angeles and the second on Depp’s private island in the Bahamas.
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp at a gala on January 9, 2016 in Culver City, California
(Alison Buck/Getty Images)
May 2016: Amber Heard files for divorce
Amber Heard files for divorce from Johnny Depp, citing irreconcilable differences. That same month, a judge grants Heard a restraining order against Depp for accusations of domestic violence on her part.
In an affidavit, Heard alleges that Depp threw a cell phone at her during a fight, hitting her in the eye and cheek, and that he yelled at her, punched her, violently grabbed her face and pulled her hair. According to The Associated Press, she gives the court a photo of her bruised face when she requests the restraining order.
Heard is seen with “a bruise on her right cheek below her eye,” according to AP, during a court appearance.
“During the entirety of our relationship, Johnny has been verbally and physically abusive to me,” Heard writes in the filing. “I endured excessive emotional, verbal and physical abuse from Johnny, including angry, hostile, humiliating and threatening assaults whenever I questioned his authority or disagreed with him.”
She also writes: “I live in fear that Johnny will return to (our home) unannounced to terrorize me, physically and emotionally.”
Depp has denied the domestic abuse allegations. His attorneys alleged in a 2016 court document that Heard was “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.”
The Los Angeles Police Department said in May 2016 that police officers who responded to a radio call about a domestic incident on May 21 found “no evidence of any wrongdoing.” Los Angeles police have since been subpoenaed by Heard’s legal team in connection with that same call as part of the ongoing defamation court case between Heard and Depp.
Amber Heard’s attorney Samantha Spector (L) arrives to appear in court on August 9, 2016 in Los Angeles.
(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
August 2016: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard settle their divorce
After months of contentious proceedings, Depp and Heard reach an agreement on their divorce.
“Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound together by love,” the couple said in a joint statement at the time. “Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intention of physical or emotional harm.”
Heard agrees to donate Depp’s $7 million to the American Civil Liberties Union and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. (In August 2021, a New York judge partially granted Depp’s request to determine whether donations had been made.)
January 2017: The divorce is official
Depp and Heard formally finalize their divorce.
“We are all pleased to put this unpleasant chapter in the life of Mr. Depp and his family behind us,” writes Depp’s attorney, Laura Wasser, in a statement. “Having his dissolution judgment entry application granted today made for a particularly lucky Friday the 13th.”
Heard’s attorney tells Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carl H Moor that his client “would be very happy to get on with his life.”
June 2018: Johnny Depp sues for Sun headline
On June 1, 2018, Depp sues News Group Newspapers, the company that publishes Sunfor alleged libel over a tabloid article published in April of that year, with the headline: “Gone Potty: How Can JK Rowling Be ‘Genuinely Happy’ Casting Wife Beater Johnny Depp In New Fantastic Beasts Movie ?”
Depp would eventually lose the case.
December 2018: Amber Heard publishes an opinion piece
On December 18, 2018, Amber Heard publishes an opinion piece on washington post titled: “I spoke out against sexual violence — and faced the wrath of our culture. That has to change.”
In it, she writes in part: “Like many women, she had been sexually harassed and assaulted when she was of college age. But I kept quiet, I did not expect to file complaints to do justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim.
“Then two years ago I became a public figure representing domestic abuse and felt the full force of our culture’s anger at women speaking out.”
Depp is not mentioned by name in the op-ed. The op-ed would later become the basis of the $50 million libel lawsuit filed by Depp that names Heard as a defendant.
March 2019: Johnny Depp sues Amber Heard
Depp files a $50 million lawsuit against Heard, claiming she defamed him on her Washington Post opinion article.
“The op-ed relied on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a victim of domestic abuse and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her,” the complaint alleges in part, calling the domestic abuse claim “categorical.” and demonstrably false.
Amber Heard makes a statement as she leaves court after the last day of Johnny Depp’s libel trial against News Group Newspapers in London on July 28, 2020.
(NIKLAS HALLE’N/AFP via Getty Images)
July 2020: Johnny Depp’s lawsuit against Sun goes to trial
The trial begins on July 7, 2020 in London. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard arrive at the High Court of Justice, and Heard is scheduled to testify in support of Sun.
Depp’s lawyers argue that he is seeking “vindication,” not money, and Depp himself denies the domestic abuse allegations. A spokesperson for Heard says vanity fair He heard that he “never asked for these procedures to be carried out” and “has tried to move on with his life.”
The trial lasts three weeks, and explosive allegations emerge as part of the evidence and testimony. The process concludes at the end of July.
Johnny Depp leaves court on July 28, 2020 in London
(Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
August 2020: Amber Heard countersuit
Heard files a $100 million counterclaim against Depp in response to her defamation lawsuit, accusing him of allegedly orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her and describing her own lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment.”
In the filing, Heard asks the court to grant her immunity from Depp’s claim and requests compensatory damages of “not more than $100 million,” specifying that this is “double the amount Depp claimed against Ms. Heard.”
November 2020: Johnny Depp loses his defamation battle against Sun
The court rules in favor of Sun in the defamation trial. Judge Andrew Nicol said the defendants had shown their allegations against Depp to be “substantially true,” The Associated Press reports at the time.
“I have found that the vast majority of Mr Depp’s alleged attacks on Ms Heard have been proven in the civil standard,” the judge writes in a ruling.
A lawyer for Depp says the ruling is “so flawed that it would be ridiculous for Depp not to appeal this decision”.
March 2021: Johnny Depp is denied permission to appeal the loss in Sun case
Two appeals court judges fail to grant Depp permission to appeal the judge’s decision in his defamation lawsuit against Sun.
According to the AP, Judges James Dingemans and Nicholas Underhill ruled that the original hearing was “full and fair” and that the judge’s decisions “have not even been shown to be tainted by any error of approach or error of law.”
Dingemans and Underhill found that “the appeal has no real prospect of success and no other compelling reason for it to be heard.”
“It is clear from reading the sentence as a whole that the judge based his conclusions on each of the incidents on his extremely detailed review of the evidence specific to each incident,” they said.
“In such an approach, there was little need or room for the judge to give weight to any overall assessment of Ms. Heard’s credibility.”
Amber Heard walks the runway as part of Paris Fashion Week on October 3, 2021 in Paris, France
(Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for L’Oreal)
April 11, 2022: Defamation case goes to trial in Virginia
The trial in Depp’s libel case against Heard began on April 11, 2022, in Fairfax, Virginia. (washington postin which Heard’s op-ed was published, has printing facilities in the state).
Heard’s witnesses are expected to include James Franco and Elon Musk, who are listed as potential witnesses who may participate via video link.
Depp suffered a significant setback before the trial began when the judge in the case, Virginia Judge Penney Azcarate, found that Heard could argue that his opinion piece was about a matter of public interest.
According to the AP, Depp’s legal team had tried to argue that Heard shouldn’t be able to rely on Virginia’s anti-SLAPP legislation. Anti-SLAPP laws, which stands for Anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, are designed to protect people from being sued when they speak out on matters of public interest.
Judge Azcarate ruled that Heard could, in fact, invoke Virginia’s anti-SLAPP legislation in her defense and argue to the jury that it should apply to her op-ed.