Johnny Depp reportedly donates US$1mil Amber Heard settlement to 5 charities

Last June, a seven-person Virginia jury sided with Depp in his messy defamation trial. Photo: AFP

As promised, Johnny Depp is putting the US$1mil (RM4.6mil) settlement he was awarded from the Amber Heard defamation case to good use.

The former Pirates Of The Caribbean star has reportedly spread out the payment among five charities, including Make-A-Film Foundation, The Painted Turtle, Red Feather, Tetiaroa Society, and Amazonia Fund Alliance. Sources told People that each organization will receive $200,000 (RM924,294).

Last June, a seven-person Virginia jury sided with Depp in his messy US$50mil defamation trial, stemming from Heard’s 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she said she was a survivor of domestic abuse.

Even though she didn’t specifically name her ex-husband in the piece, Depp’s lawsuit claimed Heard’s allegations cost him tens of millions of dollars in lost work.

After six weeks, jurors at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse unanimously determined that Depp should receive US$10mil in compensatory damages and US$5mil in punitive damages.

Chief circuit judge Penney Azcarate lowered the ruling to a total of US$10.35mil, since punitive damages are capped at US$350,000 in Virginia.

In a US$100mil countersuit, Heard was awarded US$2mil in damages.

Six months later, the former couple decided to drop their appeals and reach a settlement.

“I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed,” Heard wrote in an Instagram announcement, stating the settlement was “not an act of concession” and that she had “made no admission.”

“The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimised when they come forward,” she added. “Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to.”

TMZ reported the agreed upon settlement was for US$1mil, which Heard’s insurance company will cover.

Lawyers for Depp – who previously lost a libel lawsuit against a British tabloid publisher over an article referring to him as a “wife beater” – pledged to donate the funds to various charities.

“We are pleased to formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp, who made clear throughout this process that his priority was about bringing the truth to light,” attorneys Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez announced in December. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service