According to a source familiar with the agreement, Amber Heard has agreed to pay Johnny Depp $1 million to end their legal dispute over her alleged defamation of him.
The 36-year-old actress will pay the seven-figure sum to end their contentious courtroom wrangling, which started soon after their 2016 divorce.
Taking to her Instagram page on Monday, Amber Heard wrote:
“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,”
“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 Heard continued that the agreement places no limitations on her ability to discuss the case or the breakdown of her marriage.
I have made no admission, this is not an act of concession,” she wrote. “There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.”
The star of “Danish Girl” claimed that she signed the agreement after “losing faith in the American legal system.”
She compared the case in the United States to Depp’s unsuccessful lawsuit against the Sun newspaper for calling him a “wife-beater.” Heard spoke in court on the publisher’s behalf, and her claims of abuse were verified.
“When I stood before a judge in the UK, I was vindicated by a robust, impartial and fair system,” she wrote of the 2020 trial in London.
“Even if my US appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a re-trial where a new jury would have to consider the evidence again,” she wrote of her decision not to pursue her appeal. “I simply cannot go through that a third time.”