Did Amber Heard lie and pocket $7 million divorce settlement money? Johnny Depp accuses her of cheating charity
On Thursday, January 7, “#AmberHeardIsALiar” was trending on Twitter. Johnny Depp fans have been known to accuse Heard of being vile time and again. So, what triggered this? As per a Daily Mail report, Depp has accused Heard of pocketing the $7 million settlement from their divorce and repeatedly lying about giving it all to charity.
In 2016, Heard had declared: “As described in the restraining order and divorce settlement, money played no role for me personally and never has, except to the extent that I could donate it to charity and, in doing so, hopefully, help those less able to defend themselves.” She had said in a statement that she would be dividing the full settlement equally between the American Civil Liberties Union, specifically to prevent violence against women, and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
A 2018 Huffpost report said that Heard’s name was included on the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ 2017 donors list honor roll in a category for donations between $1 million and nearly $5 million for the fiscal year ending in June 2017.
But Depp’s lawyers believe that this was a “sham” and they have reportedly spent the past year chasing the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and American Civil Liberties Union to find out how much they actually received from the actress.
As per the report, the ACLU has refused to cooperate with multiple subpoenas but documents produced by the hospital suggest it only received $100,000 of the promised $3.5 million donations. The Daily Mail report added that Associate Senior Vice President Candie Davidson-Goldbronn wrote to Heard in June 2019 to ask “if the pledge will not be fulfilled”. The letter in question reportedly said: “I am inquiring if you have knowledge if CHLA should expect further payment installment(s) on your behalf or if the pledge will not be fulfilled… I appreciate any insights on this matter.”
At the same time, contrary to what Depp’s lawyers have claimed, the Mail reported that two further donations were made to the hospital -- of $500,000 in 2017 and $250,000 in 2018 -- both in “honor of Amber Heard.”
London High Court judge Andrew Nicol said in November 2020 that he accepted claims from Heard that Depp had violently assaulted her during their tempestuous five-year relationship. “I have found that the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms. Heard by Mr. Depp have been proved to the civil standard,” said Nicol. “The claimant has not succeeded in his action for libel.”
Nicol had further said then, “A recurring theme in Mr. Depp’s evidence was that Ms. Heard had constructed a hoax and that she had done this as an ‘insurance policy’ -- presumably in the event that the marriage broke down… She was, according to this scenario, nothing more than a gold-digger. I have in the course of this judgment given reasons why I do not accept this characterization of Ms. Heard.” He added, “I recognize that there were other elements to the divorce settlement as well, but her donation of the $7 million to charity is hardly the act one would expect of a gold-digger.”
In this light, the report said that Depp's team will seize upon the judge's remarks in their efforts to appeal the London verdict where Depp lost the “wife-beater” libel case. Heard's attorney, Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, spoke to the Mail, saying that while she would not specify how much Heard had so far given to either charity, that her client intended to fulfill the $7 million pledge “eventually”.
Bredehoft further blamed Depp for the delay, saying Heard has been forced to spend millions defending herself against “false accusations” made against her in the ongoing defamation case. Depp is pursuing a $50 million defamation suit filed in Fairfax County, Virginia, accusing Heard of creating a “hoax” account of being a domestic violence survivor for a 2018 newspaper article -- The Washington Post op-ed titled 'I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our culture's wrath, That has to change'.