Amber Heard announced Monday that the defamation case she has been involved in with her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, has been settled.
In an Instagram post, she expressed her decision to settle was not one she chose willingly. “After much consideration, I have decided to settle the defamation case brought against me by my ex-husband in Virginia,” she wrote.
“It is important for me to say that I never chose this, as I defended my truth and, in doing so, my life as I knew it was destroyed.”
After a lengthy trial, the jury sided with Depp, awarding him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.
Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages, however, Virginia’s punitive damages cap of $350,000 meant Depp received a total of $10.35 million.
The two had been in a legal battle since Heard wrote a 2018 Washington Post article alleging she was a victim of domestic abuse.
On July 21, Heard filed a notice of appeal in her defamation case against her former spouse, Johnny Depp. The following day, Depp filed his own notice of appeal.
In a statement released Monday, Heard spoke about the ordeal, noting the impact of media coverage and her disappointment with how her case was handled in court.
She also noted that her appeal was not an admission of guilt but an opportunity to “emancipate” herself from something she attempted to leave years ago.
“I make this decision having lost faith in the American legal system, where my unprotected testimony served as entertainment and social media fodder,” she wrote. The actress said during the six-week trial that she “was subjected to a courtroom in which abundant, direct evidence that corroborated my testimony was excluded and in which popularity and power mattered more than reason and due process.”
“I was exposed to a type of humiliation that I simply cannot re-live,” she wrote. “Even if my US appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a re-trial where a new jury would have to consider the evidence again. I simply cannot go through that for a third time.”
“In settling this case I am also choosing the freedom to dedicate my time to the work that helped me heal after my divorce; work that exists in realms in which I feel seen, heard and believed, and in which I know I can effect change,” she added.