Johnny Depp Thinks He Lost His Libel Case Because Of Amber Heard’s Divorce Settlement Donations

March 18, 2021 / Posted by:

Johnny Depp really, really doesn’t want you to think he’s a “wife beater,” as written by The Sun and approved by the UK court system. After a high court ruled that The Sun was well within their rights to characterize Johnny as a wife beater, his legal team announced they’d be launching an appeal of the decision. However, it’s not as simple as going to court and saying, “They can’t call me a wife beater because I’m not a wife beater, so there.” You need to argue that there was a reason the trial wasn’t fair, which is a tough sell for Johnny’s team, considering we heard so much testimony that there was literally no turd left unturned by the time the jury went to deliberate.

But that’s the issue, according to Johnny’s team. Johnny allegedly feels that the outcome of the trial was decided when Amber Heard spoke about donating her entire $7 million divorce settlement to charity. Johnny has previously accused Amber of not following through on her promise, and now he’s alleging that her failure to do so is enough to warrant an appeal.

Amber’s choice to donate her settlement dollars combated the non-stop allegations that she only ever married Johnny Depp for his money. Amber’s lawyers mentioned this during the trial, as a way to illustrate that Amber couldn’t be a gold-digger because she clearly wasn’t in it for the money. In 2016, Amber promised to donate her settlement money to the ACLU (with a focus on violence against women) and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. By 2018, it was reported that Amber had donated some of that money. I say “some,” because when the ACLU and the CHLA posted their donor list for the previous year, they didn’t get specific. For example, Amber was listed in CHLA’s donor bracket as someone who gave between $1 million and $4,999,999 million. So we didn’t technically know how big that check was.

Two months ago, Johnny alleged that Amber never donated her entire $7 million settlement as she promised. Amber’s own attorneys also confirmed that the total amount had not yet been donated. That brings us to today. The UK court of appeal heard from Johnny’s lawyers and according to them, Amber “manipulated” everyone when she testified about her $7 million settlement, and that “lie” allegedly roped in a whole lot of people to her side. via Deadline:

Andrew Caldecott, leading the appeal on behalf of Depp, centered his argument on the allegation which initially surfaced in January that Heard had falsely claimed her $7M divorce payout had been given to charity. During the original trial in the UK High Court, Heard stated that she donated the full amount to causes including L.A.’s Children Hospital Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, and this was cited by News Group’s lawyers as evidence that the actress could not be characterized as a “gold digger.”

Caldecott today stated that the donation had “tipped the scales from the very beginning” of the case and that Heard had made a “calculated and manipulative lie”. He claimed that the original court may have been unable to ascertain Heard’s credibility because it had been swayed by the idea of the $7M donation. He quoted Heard as saying, “I want him to pay but I don’t want to keep a dime of his money,” during the initial case.

Adam Wolanski, a rep for News Group, responded to Johnny’s latest move, by asking why Johnny’s legal team didn’t say anything about Amber’s donations during the trial and noted that it was known at the time that she hadn’t paid off her $7 million promise. Adam then stressed that Amber never lied when she testified, because she said she had made payments, not that she had given away all the money. And then, Adam accused Johnny’s team of perpetuating the “misogynistic” gold-digger trope.

The UK court of appeals will take some time to decide if they’ll allow Johnny’s request to appeal the ruling made last November.

As for Amber’s promised donations, her lawyers have said previously that she is absolutely going to donate all $7 million to the ACLU and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, but she’s knee-deep in legal bills because Johnny keeps dragging her into lawsuits. It sounds like all those charity promises and legal bills are murder on Amber’s bank account. I can’t imagine they’re much better for Johnny’s either. Then again, he just got an eight-figure paycheck from Warner Bros. without even having to go to work. The thing Johnny probably wants the most is for that appeals court to grant his appeal wish, and maybe some public support from a friend or two. Eh, he probably shouldn’t count on it coming from Sia. She’s sort of buried under her own career-staining PR nightmare at the moment.

Pic: Wenn.com/FayesVision

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