Unsealed court records reveal that Amber Heard declined a divorce settlement from Johnny Depp that might have totaled tens of millions of dollars, even as the struggling actress sells her cherished California house.
The 36-year-old Aquaman actress disregarded advice from her legal team not to go after Depp for the highest settlement possible when they filed for divorce in 2016.
Given that the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie was produced while they were married, she may have asked for half of the $33 million that Depp earned while filming it.
Heard had the option of stating otherwise, and in an email to them claimed that she was being remarkably true to her word, that this is not for the money.
When Depp sued Heard for libel, the judge disallowed the admission of such proof.
She was convicted guilty of slander and sentenced to pay Depp a total of $8.3 million, but she claims she lacks the funds to do so.
Selling her Yucca Valley property in the California desert for $1.05 million, or a profit of around $500,000 for Heard, may have helped her start generating some of that money.
Heard is said to have purchased the home in 2019 using an unnamed trust connected to the actress.
There is uncertainty over Heard’s capacity to pay the damages, which total $10 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive penalties, right away.
In a countersuit, Depp will also pay her $2 million, leaving her with little over $8 million to pay.
Due to Virginia’s cap on such awards, the latter sum was decreased from $5 million.
According to recently revealed court records, Heard could have avoided paying her fair share of the divorce settlement.
Judge Penney Azcarate disallowed Team Amber from submitting a communication she had with her attorneys during the divorce proceedings.
The actress’s lawyers begged the actress to seek what they believed to be “tens of millions of dollars” in revenues from Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean.
They claimed that since Depp worked on Pirates of the Caribbean 5 while Heard was married, it constituted “community property” and an asset to which Heard was entitled to a share.
Heard refused to let them pursue that money, and her attorneys claimed through email that she was being “true to your word” that it wasn’t about money.
Judge Azcarate rejected bringing up these communications during the slander trial.
The spiciest revelation from the docs may be that Amber’s brief stint as an exotic dancer and nude images of Heard were considered by team Depp.
These “unnecessary personal concerns,” according to Heard’s legal team, shouldn’t be discussed during the trial.
On July 21, Heard, 36, filed an appeal of the judge’s ruling in her defamation case against Johnny Depp, two months after she was ordered to pay her ex-husband $ 10 million in damages.
Heard had requested a mistrial a week prior but had been unsuccessful. He claimed that the summons for one of the jurors in the case should not have been valid since it was for his dad, who had the same name and address.
After a contentious six-week trial, the Aquaman actress was forced to pay her ex-husband $10.35 million in June after a jury found she had slandered him in a newspaper opinion article that was published in 2018.
Depp, 59, was awarded $15 million, which was made up of $5 million in punitive damages and $10 million in compensatory damages.
Later, the judge set the maximum allowable damages for the state at $350,000, leaving Depp with a total recovery of $8.35 million.
Heard, meanwhile, prevailed in one of her three countersuits over assertions made by Depp’s attorney that she and her pals had vandalized their flat prior to contacting the police.
Out of the $100 million that Heard requested, $2 million in compensatory damages were awarded.
Depp’s reps stated that they are optimistic in the decision despite the announcement of Heard’s appeals.
The jury listened to the significant evidence given throughout the trial and came to a firm and unanimous conclusion that the defendant herself defamed Mr. Depp on several occasions. A representative for Deep stated, they are still confident in their cause and that this judgment will hold.
Depp’s team filed an appeal after he was forced to pay $2 million in damages after being found guilty of one count of defamation for claiming the domestic abuse allegations against him were untrue, a day after Heard’s team did.
In order to guarantee that “all information is examined by the court” when they return to evaluate Heard’s appeal, the Pirates of the Caribbean actor’s team said they filed an appeal.
