Johnny Depp and Amber Heard weren’t always at odds. The exes’ very public defamation is now over, with Johnny Depp emerging victorious. But years before this, the couple were head-over-heels for one another. They first met on the set of ‘Rum Diary’ in 2009. Although they played one another’s romantic interests, their romance off-screen only happened after Johnny and his partner of 14 years, Vanessa Paradis, announced their split in June 2012.
Johnny went on to marry Amber in February of 2015, but their union was short-lived. They separated in May of 2016 and Amber filed for divorce in that same month, which was shortly followed by the ‘Aquaman’ star’s visit to court where she requested and obtained a temporary restraining order against her estranged husband at the time. She was seen leaving court with red marks on her face, which Johnny claimed were ‘painted’ in a declaration that he wrote three years later.
The legal drama didn’t end with the temporary restraining order, as Depp and Heard have gone back-and-forth with their own abuse allegations. Although they finalized the divorce in Jan. 2017, Amber penned an op-ed for ‘The Washington Post’ in which she wrote about her alleged experiences of domestic abuse (but did not give any specific names). Johnny responded with a $50 million defamation lawsuit in March 2019, and denied all the allegations again in a declaration written in his own words in May 2019. In Nov. 2021 he lost a judgment on a similar case in a UK court. There, a judge ruled that the allegations against Depp, made in an April 2018 article, were “substantially true.”
The dispute played out in a highly-publicized trial in Fairfax, Virginia. Tons of unsavory details came to light as the case featured extensive testimony from Johnny, Amber, and other celebrities like Kate Moss and actress Ellen Barkin. In the end, it was ruled Amber defamed the actor. He was awarded $15million total in damages.
There is a lot of history between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. From photos of the couple’s court battle, and the duo during better times, take a look through our gallery here.
