Johnny Depp has finally won his defamation case against Amber Heard. The jury decided that he proved Amber Heard intentionally defamed him with malice on every count and awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.
Six long years after Heard walked into a courtroom to obtain a temporary restraining order against Depp while he was not even in the same country.
June 1, 2022: Fittingly, it was Narcissistic Abuse Awareness Day when seven jurors decided to give Depp his life back and punish Heard’s defamatory campaign against him.
Following the court’s ruling, Heard released a statement through Instagram saying she is "disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously." She also claims that "the mountain of evidence wasn't enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of [her] ex-husband."
This statement is such a slap in the face to real survivors of abuse.
If anyone has set true victims back, it’s Amber Heard.
This case exposes major errors in the court of public opinion and media smear campaigns that run with “guilty until proven innocent” sentiments. There was no “mountain of evidence” as she and her lawyers claimed.
We were told she had brutal injuries such as broken ribs, a broken nose, a split lip, black eyes, and cuts on her back and feet. We were provided with no corroborating photographs of these injuries, no medical reports, and conflicting eyewitness reports. What little photo evidence we did have was manipulated and put through a photo editor so it can’t be corroborated as authentic, and this is the evidence that’s supposed to destroy a man’s life?
We were told that Heard was sexually assaulted with a (potentially broken) bottle that didn’t require medical attention and that she didn’t recall feeling pain. No evidence has been presented to corroborate this story and, if it happened the way she described, it would have required emergency medical treatment. Heard’s allegations against Depp have been wild and unsubstantiated.
The most damning evidence presented in court was that of the audio recordings which exposed the relationship for what it was – Heard repeatedly acting aggressive, degrading Depp, admitting to physically abusing him, and shaming him for always running away.
True victims of domestic violence and sexual assault have overwhelmingly sided with Depp, and that’s not by accident. They recognize the signs of narcissistic abuse reflected in the relationship, but not on Depp’s part.
There were countless eyewitnesses, including police officers trained to respond to situations of domestic violence, who say Heard had no bruises when they saw her after the alleged abuse and they did not believe her to be a victim of domestic violence. The only recorded medical injury throughout the relationship was sustained by Depp, whose finger was cut off.
The mainstream media has gaslit male victims of abuse as well as those who have been falsely accused, for years. The Washington Post is complicit in Depp’s defamation.
“Believe all women,” they say. Implicit in that statement is the belief that a woman can not and does not lie. The #MeToo movement, for all the good and bad that it has done, has exposed something deeply troubling at the heart of our media and larger society – the infantilization of women.
To assert that a woman is not capable of defamation, malice, or lying, is to ask us to deny the reality of human nature. It actually reeks of a deep lack of respect for women and all of the complexity they have to offer. Women are, as feminists rightly claim, capable of anything that a man can do.
Depp may have prevailed in his defamation suit, but how many other men have Amber Heards at home who attempt to ruin their lives based on hearsay and never get the opportunity to defend themselves?
This win sets a precedent that there are consequences for false accusations.
The stark contrast in Heard’s and Depp’s public statements is like night and day. "I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up. I also hope that the position will now return to innocent until proven guilty, both within the courts and in the media,”
The first noticeable difference is how Heard’s statement banks on gender ideology.
Heard only ever references women, while Depp says he just wants the truth to prevail, no matter who, men or women, are in his shoes.
Keep in mind, it wasn’t Depp who asked for this media and legal circus.
Heard is the one who filed for a temporary restraining order and divorce right after Depp’s mother died and while he was out of the country. Morgan Tremaine testified in court that it was Heard who leaked videos of Depp slamming cabinets and who tipped off paparazzi so they would photograph her bruises. Then, she wrote an op-ed two years later, where she defamed him. The media pounced on Heard’s claims as if they were scripture, printing stories labeling Depp a “wife-beater.” The media presumed Depp to be guilty without ever asking for his side of the story.
During his testimony, Depp was asked what he lost as a result of Heard’s claims against him, to which he responded, “Nothing less than everything.” Is this what we stand for, as a society? This is justice?
Now that Depp has been vindicated in the court of law, mainstream publications are in full damage control, claiming that Heard has been bullied and treated terribly for no other reason than being a woman who dared to speak out. I’ll tell you the reason Heard is being met with such understandable vitriol by the public.
We watched for six years as a B-list actress spouted out claim after claim of unsubstantiated abuse while the actual evidence in question not only failed to corroborate her claims but explicitly demonstrated the opposite.
She never believed Depp would hold her accountable.
They found that Heard did not tell the truth about a single incident of violence throughout the entire relationship. Not only that, but they found she lied intentionally and with malice, and they wanted to punish her, which is why Depp was awarded $5 million in punitive damages.
Comparatively, Heard only won one count of defamation in her countersuit which pertained to very specific statements made by Depp’s lawyer, who made claims about Heard and her friends conducting the hoax in an elaborate and specific way that cannot be proven.
They granted that this statement made by Adam Waldman was defamatory because it couldn’t be proven, and they awarded her $2 million in compensatory damages but $0 in punitive damages.
Heard can be overheard admitting to slicing Depp’s finger off with a bottle of vodka.
The media, for all of their talks of shaming “imperfect victims” has no sense of irony in their coverage of this trial.
Depp is a man who suffered from intense childhood abuse at the hands of his mother, according to himself and his sister. This kind of abuse would have a lifelong impact on a child as they grow into adulthood. It’s no wonder why Depp was primed to stay in an abusive relationship with a woman.
Why, then, is it perfectly acceptable to victim blame a male abuse victim? The amount of false equivalence I have seen on social media and in news coverage is sickening.
They’re justifying Heard’s admission of physical abuse while accusing a man of those very violent acts without evidence. We never once hear Depp admit to hitting Heard. Every time we do hear him speak, he’s trying to run away, which only enrages Heard more.
Depp can’t be a victim because he’s a famous and rich man in a position of privilege and power. That’s the central argument that the media has made.
The justifications made for Heard’s behavior in the court – snickering as Depp recounts the alleged daily psychological, emotional, and physical abuse he had to face – are deeply disturbing.
Has the media considered for even a moment how damaging and traumatizing it is for male abuse victims to see them drag Depp through the mud and disbelieve him despite presenting a mountain of evidence he was abused and Heard admitting to it herself?
The media doesn’t care about the truth or abuse victims, they care about promoting a narrative that advances their ideological causes.
It’s tragic to watch male victims, who are never spoken for and for whom there are virtually no domestic violence shelters, finally feel seen because of this trial being televised and the truth being spread.
The mainstream media have long used the excuse that Depp was found guilty of 12 incidents of abuse in the UK trial, but this statement is purposely dishonest.
Firstly, Heard was not a party to that trial, she was merely a witness and Depp only lost a case against The Sun, not against Heard.
Secondly, The Sun only had to demonstrate there was a 51% chance that Depp committed acts of violence to win the defamation case, which is exactly what happened.
If your son, brother, husband, or some other male loved one was falsely accused, would you feel comfortable with their fate being left in the hands of what is essentially a coin toss?
Where before they merely ignored the evidence, now they explicitly spit on it.
Justice for Johnny Depp and all of those, man or woman, who have been subject to domestic or sexual abuse – may you get your justice too.