Johnny Depp, 60, received $1 million in damages from his ex-wife Amber Heard, 37, over a year after their defamation trial ended, according to TMZ. The publication reported on June 13 that Amber’s insurance company paid the settlement from their trial, and Johnny is allegedly giving away all the money to five charities. The Pirates of the Caribbean star will reportedly donate $200,000 each to Make-A-Film Foundation, The Painted Turtle, Red Feather, Tetiaroa Society and the Amazonia Fund Alliance. Those are five organizations that Johnny “believes in,” TMZ said, so the Oscar winner wants the money to go there, instead of in his own pockets.
Amber lost her case against Johnny on June 1, 2022, and she decided to settle the defamation case that December. “After a great deal of deliberation I have made a very difficult decision to settle the defamation case brought against me by my ex-husband in Virginia,” Amber wrote on Instagram Dec. 19. The Aquaman star had filed to appeal the verdict where she was found guilty of defaming Johnny in an op-ed piece for The Washington Post. She never mentioned her ex-husband by name in the article, but Johnny sued her for defamation, and after a highly-publicized trial played out where Johnny had a ton of public support, he won.
When Amber announced she was settling the case, she explained that she never wanted to give up in her legal war with her former spouse. “I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed,” she said in her Dec. 2022 statement. “The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimized when they come forward.” Amber also clarified that her settlement doesn’t change her story. “I have made no admission. This is not an act of concession,” she said.
Johnny and Amber have been living very differently since the trial. Johnny has been in the spotlight, by going on tour with his band The Hollywood Vampires. He also attended the Cannes Film Festival in May to premiere his new film Jeanne Du Barry, and he got a great response from the fans in France. The actor even received a long standing ovation for his performance as King Louis XV in the movie.
Amber, meanwhile, moved to Spain where she’s staying out of the spotlight with her 2-year-old daughter, Oonagh. A friend of Amber’s reportedly told the Daily Mail that the actress is “happy” in her new home country. “I don’t think she is in any hurry to return to work or to Hollywood,” the friend added, “but she will probably come back when the time is right for the right project.”