Amber Heard Releases Statement, Reveals What She Blames for Her Loss to Johnny Depp – Opinion

Amber Heard, the defendant in today’s defamation trial was found responsible. She now owes her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, $10 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages (reduced from $5 million due to Virginia’s statutory cap) stemming from an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post some years prior. It detailed what she claimed she was subject to domestic abuse by Depp. Heard was awarded $2 million in the counter-suit she filed, though that’ll do little to soften the blow.

In what resembled a TV show more than an actual court case at times, Heard had numerous, unprofessional outbursts which probably didn’t help her situation. Now, she’s released a statement, and I’m pretty sure you can guess what she’s blaming for the loss.

💕 pic.twitter.com/8vGMHykjkA

— Amber Heard (@realamberheard) June 1, 2022

The immediate fallback to “what this verdict means for other women” is just so tiring. Every victim is not the same, and women should not be trusted, particularly in light of countervailing evidence. In this case, it appears that Heard simply lied on several counts (at least, that’s what the jury decided), and no deflection to the #metoo movement will change the facts on the ground.

Her response is therefore tone deaf, unmature and reckless. It is possible to find it. These are actually women out there who should be believed when a man does something terrible to them, and Heard’s continued performance hurts those women in that it breeds skepticism in cases where there shouldn’t be any.

This situation is not for the faint-hearted. Depp is troubled by his decision to leave his family and move into this sort of relationship chaos. Heard, however, is not an innocent victim. She was not only physically abusive, as she admitted, but based on fair analysis of the evidence she also appeared emotionally abusive. I can’t know for sure what happened when they were the only ones present in the room and won’t make definitive statements, but based on what we Learn moreThe right decision was made.

This decision has not affected the rights of any woman, Heard included, to free speech. Heard is still free to express her opinions as she pleases. What she doesn’t have the right to do is go to the Post to pen a defamatory article that crushed Depp’s career, leaving out key context, including her own vile actions. That she did so in what looked to be a cynical attempt to gain street cred with the women’s movement makes it all the worse.