Johnny Depp and Amber Heard started dating in 2012, after meeting on the set of The Rum Diary in 2009. They got married in a civil ceremony in 2015. Heard filed for divorce from Depp in May 2016, nearly one year after they were married. She retained a temporary restraining order against him, alleging from the court declaration that he had been verbally and physically abusive to her during the course of their relationship, while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He denied the rumors saying she used him for a better financial settlement. The divorce was finalized in January 2017.
Amber Heard dismissed the restraining order, and the couple issued a joint statement saying "their 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." Depp paid her $7 million, which she pledged to donate to charities.
Since then, Heard has made Depp's life nothing but trouble, and the two have been in an ongoing battle since their divorce. Read on to find out the details of their fight and what has surfaced recently.
11 Moving On
After their divorce, Amber Heard moved on and started dating many other people. In 2016, amidst their messy divorce, Heard dated Cara Delevingne in 2016. In 2017, she was linked to tech billionaire Elon Musk. They dated on and off again for about a year. Then in 2018, she moved on to art dealer Vito Schnabel. Most recently, Heard is dating Bianca Butti. The girlfriends seem to still be going strong.
As for Depp, he has dated a good number of women. According to DailyMail, after his split with Heard, Depp was linked to Russian go-go dancer, Polina Glen, whom he started dating in 2019. However, the pressure became too much for the dancer, and she decided to call it quits and move back to Russia.
10 Amber Heard Wrote An Op-Ed
In 2018, one year after their divorce was finalized, Heard wrote an Op-Ed piece for The Washington Post, in which she detailed her relationship with Depp and the abuse she faced and the treatment of women in domestic abuse cases.
In the op-ed, Heard wrote: "I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture's wrath for women who speak out." However, Depp was never mentioned by name.
9 Depp Filed A Libel Lawsuit In The U.K.
In June 2018, Depp brought a libel lawsuit, "Depp v News Group Newspapers Ltd," in the UK against the News Group Newspapers (NGN), which was the company that published The Sun. The publication called him a "wife beater" and criticized his casting in the Fantastic Beasts film franchise in an April 2018 article. Heard was a key witness during the trial in June 2020.
8 Depp Sued For Defamation Over 'The Washington Post' Article
In 2019, Depp sued Heard for $50 million for defamation of his characters over The Washington Post article. The suit said that Heard is not a victim of domestic abuse and denied that Depp ever abused her. Instead, it claimed that her allegations were part of an “elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity" for the actress.
He and his legal team insisted she was the perpetrator. “The op-ed depended on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her,” his lawyers said. The suit is still ongoing.
7 Heard Admitted To Hitting Depp
In January 2020, phone recordings were obtained by Daily Mail and released. In these recordings, Heard admitted to "hitting" Depp. She is heard saying, “I'm sorry that I didn't ... hit you across the face in a proper slap, but I was hitting you, it was not punching you. Babe, you're not punched. I don't know what the motion of my actual hand was, but you're fine, I did not hurt you, I did not punch you, I was hitting you.” She admitted to getting so mad sometimes, she loses it. You can hear Depp saying he left because he couldn’t take the idea of more physical abuse on each other.
6 The Three Week Libel Trial Did Not Turn Out Well For Depp
In July 2020, Depp participated in the three-week libel trial against NGN. His former girlfriends, Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder, both provided statements in Depp’s defense. Sadly, despite his claims, in November of that year, the judge ruled that The Sun was correct in reporting that Depp was violent against his ex-wife. The judge referred to 14 different incidents in which they cited Depp as a “wife-beater.” He has denied all claims he was ever abusive towards her.
5 Depp Is Taken Out Of Popular Roles
Four days after the trial, Johnny Depp announced that he was asked to resign from his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts 3, and he respected and agreed to that request. The film had already begun production and Danish actor, Mads Mikkelsen is replacing him in the role, but he will still receive full compensation for the film, having filmed one scene already. It has also been said that Depp was taken out of the next Pirates of the Caribbean film, in which he plays Captain Jack Sparrow. Margot Robbie is set to take his place.
4 He Was Denied The Right To Appeal Twice
After losing the libel battle, Depp had requested an appeal for the case. However, in a statement released on November 25, the judge refused to grant Depp the permission to appeal. He also ordered Depp to make a payment of $841,773 to NGN, to cover legal fees.
As for the $50 million defamation lawsuit Depp launched, that has been postponed until 2022. However, in March 2021, Depp was once again denied permission to appeal by the Court of Appeal judges.
3 Fans Are Mad That Amber Heard Is In 'Aquaman 2'
Despite pressure from Johnny Depp fans, Warner Bros decided not to cut Amber Heard from the upcoming Aquaman film. They said efforts from the fanbase aren’t enough to take her out of the film. "I don't think that we're ever going to react to, honestly, pure fan pressure. You gotta do what you feel is best for the movie. We felt that if it's James Wan and Jason Momoa, it should be Amber Heard. That's really what it was," the movie's producer, Peter Safran said.
Fans were very mad about this because Depp got kicked out of his film without any evidence, and after it came out that Heard had hit him, why shouldn’t she be treated the same? A petition was even made, calling for her to be fired.
2 Depp Sued The American Civil Liberties Union
Finally, a win for Johnny Depp! In recent news, the judge sided with Depp when he filed a petition to see if the $7 million he gave Heard was actually donated to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
The ACLU must release documents that confirm whether or not Heard followed through on the donation promise. In a statement with USA Today, Depp’s attorney, Benjamin Chew said, “Mr. Depp is most gratified by the Court’s decision.”
1 What's Next?
Now that Depp is digging into this more, we have to wait for the results to come back and see if Heard actually stuck to her promise. Heard has made headlines recently after welcoming a baby girl via surrogate, and Depp is busy filming a movie. However, even if he wins this court case, he might not be back in the Pirates or the Fantastic Beasts films, as the latter is already being filmed. This is an ongoing case.