Early Monday, Amber Heard announced on Instagram that she made “a very difficult decision” to settle the defamation case brought against her by her ex-husband Johnny Depp.
It was previously reported that Depp was given more than $10 million in damages after a seven-person jury determined that Heard had defamed him in her op-ed regarding domestic abuse.
“It’s important for me to say that I never chose this,” Heard said in her statement. “I defended my truth in doing so; my life as I knew it was destroyed. The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways women are re-victimized when they come forward.”
“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,” she continued. “I have made no admission. This is not an act of concession. There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.”
Sources close to Depp said, “It’s a seven-figure settlement. The judgment is in place. But part of the point of appealing it for her was both the financial reasons and also to ensure there wasn’t a judgment in place against her — that has significant ramifications. This judgment is never going away. Depp has said it wasn’t about money. He just wanted the truth.”
“When I stood before a judge in the U.K., I was vindicated by a robust, impartial, and fair system, where I was protected from having to give the worst moments of my testimony in front of the world’s media and where the court found that I was subjected to domestic and sexual violence,” Heard said in her post.
“In the U.S., however, I exhausted almost all my resources in advance of and during a trial in which I was subjected to a courtroom in which abundant, direct evidence that corroborated my testimony was excluded and in which popularity and power mattered more than reason and due process.”
“In the interim, I was exposed to a type of humiliation that I simply cannot re-live,” Heard added in her statement.
“I simply cannot go through that for a third time,” Heard wrote, saying that the U.S. legal process “has shown itself unable to protect me and my right to free speech.”
“I cannot afford to risk an impossible bill – one that is not just financial, but also psychological, physical, and emotional,” the actress added. “Women shouldn’t have to face abuse or bankruptcy for speaking her truth, but unfortunately, it is not uncommon.”
She also stated on Monday, “choosing the freedom to dedicate my time to the work that helped me heal after my divorce.”
“I will not be threatened, disheartened or dissuaded by what happened from speaking the truth,” she wrote. “No one can, and no one will take that from me. My voice forever remains the most valuable asset I have.”
