On June 1, a jury in Virginia Heard found liable in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed for defaming Depp, in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic violence,” without whom to explicitly name the actors in the play. The jury awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Fairfax County District Court Judge Penney Azcarate later reduced the punitive damages to $350,000 to meet the state’s legal ceiling.
Although Heard appealed the verdict, she released a statement on Dec. 19 announcing that she had made the decision to settle the case instead.
During the trial, Depp’s acting career was discussed and at one point the 59-year-old testified that he had no interest in playing Jack Sparrow on screen again.
“In fact, Mr. Depp, if Disney came to you with $300 million and a million alpacas, would there be anything on earth that would make you go back and work with Disney on a Pirates of the Caribbean movie? Right?” Heard’s attorney asked, to which Depp replied on the witness stand, “That’s true.”