Actor Johnny Depp has won his multimillion-dollar US lawsuit against former wife Amber Heard after a jury ruled her 2018 article in the Washington Post was defamatory.
The verdict in the six week trial was returned at the court house in Virginia on Wednesday, after the jury deliberated for over 13 hours.
Mr Depp sued Ms Heard for $50 million (€46 million) dollars over her op-ed, “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”
The article does not mention Johnny Depp by name, but his lawyers said it falsely implied he physically and sexually abused Ms Heard while they were together.
Ms Heard was present for the verdict but Mr Depp was not, as a source confirmed to the PA news agency that he was still in the UK.
During the trial, Heard described more than a dozen specific instances when she said Depp abused her. Depp has denied any physical or sexual abuse, and says Heard concocted the claims to destroy his reputation.
The jury found that Heard defamed Depp on all three counts and awarded him $10m in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages.
