Remember the main moments of the legal fight between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp

This Friday (27) begins the deliberation of the jury of the cases filed between actors Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, who were married for two years. The extensive trial has lasted six weeks, starting on April 11, and has brought allegations of violence from both sides.

The lawsuit was initially filed by Depp, who sued Heard for defamation over the publication of an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he said he had been a victim of domestic violence. She does not cite Depp in the text, but the artist’s lawyers claim that the public associated Heard’s statements with her ex-husband, which would have caused him professional harm. He seeks “no less than $50 million” in moral damages.

I became a public figure denouncing domestic violence and felt the full force of our culture’s anger at women who speak out.

Amber Heard, in an article in the Washington Post in 2018

The actress, meanwhile, also sued him, accusing Depp and his lawyers of orchestrating a smear campaign against her, and claiming that his lawsuit is a “continuation of the abuse and harassment” he suffered during their marriage. She asks for $100 million, double the amount demanded by her ex-husband’s team.

The trial takes place in Fairfax County Courthouse in the state of Virginia, rather than California, where the couple lived during their marriage. The process could be filed in the region because the Washington Post is published digitally by servers in the state, in addition to the newspaper itself being printed on site. Depp’s team may have chosen the Virginia courthouse for the case because of differences in legislation, and to move the trial away from the center of American art life.

This is not the first legal fight involving the couple since their divorce, which ended in 2017. In 2018, Depp sued the company that publishes the British newspaper The Sun for defamation, due to an article published in April in which the tabloid nicknamed the actor “spouse abuser”. The case was tried in 2020 and Amber Heard testified in favor of the newspaper. Depp lost the battle, as Judge Andrew Nicol ruled that the actor’s allegations of aggression against his ex-wife were “substantially true.”

Remember the main moments that have taken place in court since April 11:

History

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard started dating in 2012 after meeting each other while filming “Diary of a Drunken Journalist” a few years earlier. They got married in 2015, and stayed together for just over two years.

After the split, the actress filed for a divorce and a request for a protective order against Depp, appearing with bruises on her cheek – images that quickly sparked discussions about domestic violence.

She accused Depp of attacking her “violently” and throwing a cellphone with “extreme force” in her face. In the lawsuit, she accuses Depp of “excessive emotional, verbal and physical abuse, angry, hostile, humiliating and threatening assaults”.

*Under supervision.