Johnny Depp counters Amber Heard's appeal in defamation suit verdict

Hollywood actor Johnny Depp has appealed the $2 million defamation award that the Virginia jury handed to his ex-wife Amber Heard at their trial in June. This news comes just a day after Heard gave formal notice of intent to appeal the verdict in Depp's defamation trial against her.

According to Deadline, in the paperwork filed in Fairfax County, Depp has appealed the $2 million defamation award, that the jury in Virginia handed to his ex-wife at their trial last month. "Plaintiff and Counterclaim-Defendant John C Depp II, by counsel, hereby appeals to the Court of Appeals of Virginia from all adverse rulings and from the final judgment order of this Circuit Court entered on June 24, 2022," said the four-page notice of appeal.

Heard previously appealed the jury verdict in the multi-million dollar defamation case she lost to her former husband, Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp. Lawyers for the 36-year-old Heard, who starred in the movie Aquaman, filed a notice of appeal on Thursday with the Virginia Court of Appeals.

A Virginia jury in June awarded $10 million in damages to Depp after finding that a 2018 newspaper column penned by Heard was defamatory. The 59-year-old Depp sued Heard over a Washington Post op-ed in which she did not name him, but described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

Heard, who counter-sued, was awarded $2 million. The jury reached the verdict after an intense six-week trial riding on bitterly contested allegations of domestic abuse. The case, live-streamed to millions, featured lurid and intimate details about the Hollywood celebrities’ private lives.

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