Amber Heard and her legal team intend to appeal a Virginia jury’s verdict that she defamed her ex-husband Johnny Depp in a 2018 op-ed.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the wheels are in motion for an appeal of the decision, but no more information, such as a potential date, was immediately available.
The jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and an extra $5 million in punitive damages on Wednesday, which was later lowered to $350,000 due to Virginia’s punitive damages statutory cap.
The jury also decided in favor of Heard, paying her $2 million in compensatory damages.
“The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence and sway of my ex-husband,” Heard wrote in a statement immediately after the verdict was handed down. “I’m even more 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.”
“I believe Johnny’s attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK,” she continued. “I’m sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American —to speak freely and openly.”
