Johnny Depp slaps $50mn defamation suit against Amber Heard

Actor Johnny Depp has sued actress and former wife Amber Heard for defamation, seeking $50 million. Depp’s lawyers filed the defamation suit against Heard on Friday over her December 18, 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post in which she characterised herself as a domestic abuse victim, reports people.com. Depp’s lawsuit calls Heard’s allegations of domestic violence against him a “hoax”.

Heard “purported to write from the perspective of ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse’ and claimed that she ‘felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out’ when she ‘spoke up against sexual violence’,” Depp’s lawyers state in the lawsuit.

“The op-ed depended on the central premise that Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her. “Depp never abused Heard. Her allegations against him were false when they were made in 2016. They were part of an elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity for Heard and advance her career,” Depp’s lawyers say in the lawsuit.

In response, Heard’s representative said: “This frivolous action is just the latest of Johnny Depp’s repeated efforts to silence Amber Heard. She will not be silenced. Depp’s actions prove he is unable to accept the truth of his ongoing abusive behaviour.