While a judge ruled in Johnny Depp’s favor regarding his Amber Heard defamation lawsuit, multiple sources confirm to Us Weekly that the Aquaman actress intends to appeal the verdict.
“She is 100 percent appealing on freedom of speech and is telling friends she is determined to take it all the way to the Supreme Court if she has to,” an insider tells Us on Friday, June 3. “She is not able to comprehend that she lost.”
While court paperwork has yet to be filed, the source notes that the 36-year-old Texas native “isn’t worried” about paying the 58-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean star since “she is convinced that she will win on appeal.”
Depp filed a lawsuit against his The Rum Diary costar — whom he was married to between 2015 and 2017 — citing defamation in response to a 2018 opinion article she wrote for the Washington Post. In the op-ed, Heard revealed she was a survivor of domestic abuse though did not name Depp nor her alleged attacker in the post. (The news outlet has since added an editor’s note to the article with the trial results.)
Following the trial proceedings which began in April, a jury ruled in favor of Depp on Wednesday, June 1, awarding the Kentucky native $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Depp’s punitive award was reduced to $350,000 since Virginia state law set a cap on the maximum amount that can be awarded.
“The disappointment I feel today is beyond words,” Heard said in a statement to Us at the time. “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.”
She added: “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. … 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.”
Amid the verdict, the Justice League actress was granted $2 million after the jury found that Depp’s attorney made a defamatory statement about her, alleging her abuse claims were a hoax.
While Depp was not in court on Wednesday, he released a statement to Us that he was “humbled” and pleased by the verdict, noting, “Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that.”
In addition to filing an eventual appeal, Heard is hoping to focus her priorities on her family following the trial. The insider explains that the Never Back Down star “is telling friends that she is just going to focus on raising her daughter [Oonagh.]”
Heard secretly welcomed her first child via surrogate in April 2021.
“Four years ago, I decided I wanted to have a child. I wanted to do it on my own terms,” the actress wrote via Instagram at the time. “I now appreciate how radical it is for us as women to think about one of the most fundamental parts of our destinies in this way. I hope we arrive at a point in which it’s normalized to not want a ring in order to have a crib. A part of me wants to uphold that my private life is none of anyone’s business. … [Oonagh is] the beginning of the rest of my life.”
With reporting by Diana Cooper and Andrea Simpson
