Amber Heard was found guilty of libel on Wednesday and ordered to pay $15 million to ex-husband Johnny Depp.
According to a jury in the popular case, Heard defamed Depp with a column published in The Washington Post in 2018 in which presented herself as a victim of domestic abuse.
The seven-member jury in Virginia evaluated, one by one, three phrases included in the text of Heard and determined that all of them are defamatory against her ex-husband.
They also determined that she was defamed, but by a former attorney for the actor and only on one of the three occasions cited in the actress’s counterclaim.
Depp assured that his ex-wife’s column in the prestigious Post it had a devastating impact on his life and career, even being passed over for leading roles in movies.
But what exactly did Amber Heard say in her writing?
No mention of Depp
The column was published on December 18, 2018 and does not mention, directly or indirectly, Johnew Depp.
Its title was: “I spoke out against sexual violence and faced the wrath of our culture. That has to change.”
Precisely the phrase that titles the column is the first of the three submitted to the verdict of the jury.
The jury found that Amber directed it at Depp with the intent to defame him.
The other two sentences are in the bulk of the text.
The 36-year-old actress and model began her essay by assuring that she was “exposed to abuse at a very young age” and that even then she knew “certain things”, such as that “men have power, physical, social and financial” and ” Many institutions support that arrangement.
Later, she went on to say that “like many women, I had been sexually harassed and assaulted when I was a college age. But I kept quiet, I did not expect to file complaints for justice. And I did not see myself as a victim.”
And, immediately after, lanzaba the second of the sentences that have cost him a millionaire sentence:
“Later, two years agoI became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s anger at women speaking out.”
In 2016 Heard had participated in a campaign for the #GirlGaze Project, in which she spoke about her experience with domestic violence and published an article on the same topic in Porter magazine.
The content of the phrase is also linked to the time in which the actress lived with Depp, since both were married between 2015 and 2017.
The actress went on to say that she was included in a “blacklist”, that she lost some job opportunities and that she was about to be stripped of her role as Mera in the films “Justice League” (The league of justice) and “Aquaman”. “.
Although he does not explain the reasons, it is interpreted from the context that he alludes to pressure so that he would not report the alleged abuses.
And then comes the third sentence:
“I had the rare advantage of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.”
The members of the jury also agreed with the prosecution in this case, considering it was defamation. referred to Depp and against Depp.
In the rest of the column he reflected, among other things, on the difficulties of facing a powerful man, whom he compares to the Titanic, and defends the #MeToo movement.
He assured that “we are in a transforming political moment” and referred to the complaints of harassment against former US President Trump, as well as the sexual assaults that occur on university campuses in the United States.
In the final paragraphs, she claimed to write her column “like a woman who had to change her phone number weekly because I received death threats“.
And it ended like this:
“I want to make sure that women who step up to speak out about violence get more support. We’re electing representatives who know how deeply we care about these issues. We can work together to demand changes in laws, rules and social norms.” , and correct the imbalances that have shaped our lives.
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