Amber Heard and Johnny Depp split way back in 2017 after two years of marriage, but their equal parts messy and public legal battle has extended on for much longer. As part of their divorce settlement, Johnny coughed up $7 million to Heard, and she promised she would donate all of the money to charity, which boosted her credibility in the court. The 57-year-old actor is allegedly claiming, however, that despite his ex's promise, she hasn't yet given all of the money away. According to TMZ, he plans to use this argument to get a court to reconsider his 2018 defamation case.
The publication reports that Depp plans to use this legal argument with his lawyers to appeal the ruling in his U.K. defamation case back in 2018 when he sued The Sun for labeling him as a "wife beater." He lost the case when a judge instead ruled there was evidence he had abused Amber before.
Amber served as The Sun's star witness and took the stand to lay out the allegations of Depp's domestic violence during their marriage. Johnny's lawyer Andrew Caldecott, however, claimed in court Thursday (March 18) that Heard's testimony was unfair because promising to donate the $7 million gave her, "considerable boost to her credibility as a person" and "tipped the scales against Mr. Depp from the very beginning."
Depp's lawyers essentially believe the judge believed Amber because of her donation claims, but she actually has only donated $100,00 of the money. He thinks this entitles his client to a retrial.
Amber Heard's lawyer Elaine Bredehoft admitted Amber had not yet fulfilled the entirety of the $7 million pledge because Depp keeps suing her. "Amber has already been responsible for seven figures in donations to charitable causes and intends to continue to contribute and eventually fulfill her pledge," said Bredehoft.
She adds ... "However, Amber has been delayed in that goal because Mr. Depp filed a lawsuit against her, and consequently, she has been forced to spend millions of dollars defending Mr. Depp's false accusations against her."
The judge had yet to rule on Depp's request.
[via]