Amber Heard REFUSED $16M divorce payout from Johnny Depp, reveal unsealed court documents
Unsealed court documents have revealed that Amber Heard refused to accept a divorce payout from Johnny Depp that could have run to tens of millions of dollars. Heard, on the other hand, may have to sell her California home to pay Depp after being found guilty of defamation. Documents reportedly showed that the 'Aquaman' actress ignored her legal team's suggestion to pursue Depp for the maximum money she was entitled to when the pair filed for divorce in 2016.
Since the fourth installment of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was filmed while Heard and Depp were still married, she could have sought half of Depp's $33 million. Heard, however, did not seek the amount, the Daily Beast reported. She wrote in an email that she was being "amazingly true to (her) word, that this is now about the money." However, during Depp's defamation lawsuit against Heard, a judge refused to let that evidence be admitted.
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A jury ruled in favor of Johnny Depp in his lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard on June 1, 2022. After deliberating over three days, the jury ruled in a unanimous decision that Heard defamed Depp when she called herself a victim of domestic abuse. She was ordered to pay $15 million in damages, including $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The jury also awarded Heard compensatory damages of $2 million because she was defamed when Depp's lawyer Adam Waldman called her abuse allegations a hoax. Heard, on the other hand, was rewarded $2 million in compensatory damages.
It has now been revealed that Heard does not have enough cash to pay the amount to Depp, so she may now have begun raising some of it by selling her Yucca Valley home in the California desert for $1.05million, TMZ reported. Heard is said to have bought the house in 2019 through an anonymous trust tied to her.
Judge Penney Azcarate reportedly refused to allow Team Amber to submit a conversation the actress had with her lawyers during the divorce trial. Heard's attorney's sought to pursue what they felt were "tens of million of dollars" she was supposed to receive through Depp's 'Pirates of the Caribbean' profits Heard has been denied.
Depp's representatives recently told the Daily Mail that they are confident in the verdict. "The jury listened to the extensive evidence presented during the trial and came to a clear and unanimous verdict that the defendant herself defamed Mr Depp in multiple instances. We remain confident in our case and that this verdict will stand," a spokesperson for Depp said.
For the uninitiated, Depp and Heard squared off over a 2018 op-ed Heard wrote for the Washington Post, where she called herself a domestic violence survivor. Depp that he was booted from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise because Heard's op-ed clearly implicated that he was the abuser. The article, however, did not mention Depp by name. The actor sued for $50 million and Heard countersued for $100 million, claiming Depp ran a smear campaign for years in an attempt to silence her and destroy her acting career.
Depp and Heard began dating after meeting on the sets of the 2011 film 'The Rum Diary'. They got married in Los Angeles in February 2015. In 2016, Heard obtained a restraining order against Depp, accusing him of abuse. Depp, however, denied the claims, saying that her accusations were a "choreographed hoax”. In 2019, the two settled their divorce out of court. At the time, Heard said she had donated her $7m (£5.5m) settlement to charity. Depp later accused her of lying about it.