Showbiz

John C. Depp, II v. Amber Laura Heard (CL-2019-2911)[2] is an ongoing defamation trial in Fairfax County, Virginia, that began on April 11, 2022.[3] Plaintiff Johnny Depp is making claim for three counts of defamation for "$50,000,000 +" in damages from defendant Amber Heard,[4] who is counterclaiming $100 million. The parties are film actors who were married from 2015 to 2017.[5] Previously accused by Heard of intimate partner violence, Depp sued his ex-wife in February 2019 over an op-ed she wrote which was published by The Washington Post in December 2018.[6]

Depp blamed Heard's op-ed for extensive financial losses to his career and claimed it damaged his ability to profit from his vocation. In the op-ed, Heard had described becoming "a public figure representing domestic abuse" and "seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse."[7][8]