Amber Heard announced she settled her defamation case against Johnny Depp.
The surprise move comes weeks after lawyers for the actress officially appealed the June verdict, in which a Virginia jury awarded the Pirates of the Caribbeanstar more than $10 million. Heard said on Monday she “made a very difficult decision” to settle “after a great deal of deliberation.” The actress went on to slam the U.S. justice system in her lengthy statement and said she “cannot relive” the kind of humiliation she was exposed to during the six-week trial.
“It’s important for me to say that I never chose this. I defended my truth and 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 in which women are revictimized when they come forward. Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago,” the Aquaman star continued, referencing her very public 2016 divorce from Depp when she accused him of abuse.
Depp has not publicly commented on the settlement, which TMZ reports is $1 million. A rep for the actor did not respond to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment.
Heard, 36, noted her statement is “not an act of concession” and “there are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.”
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