Credit: Universal PicturesThe reported $1 million settlement payment to Johnny Depp from his estranged former spouse Amber Heard is running into some legal problems.
The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial dominated news headlines in 2022, and yet the legal fallout from the infamous case still has not been settled. Now, it seems that Heard cannot stop battling an insurance company over money that it does not want to pay her for the punitive damages settlement she has reportedly already paid the former (and maybe future) Pirates of the Caribbean star.
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At the end of the trial, a Virginia judge found that he was liable for one count of defamation, while Amber Heard was liable for three. Both actors were ordered to pay each other damages, but Heard’s far exceeded her former husband’s.
Both had sued for gargantuan amounts (Amber Heard initially asked for $50 million, Johnny Depp countered with a $100 million suit), and while the ordered damages were much smaller, they were still considerable. Ultimately, Heard was legally responsible for over $8 million in combined compensatory damages and punitive damages.
While not a matter of public record, it has been reported that Amber Heard and Johnny Depp eventually arrived at a settlement payment of $1 million (which the former Fantastic Beasts actor apparently donated to charitable causes).
The issue now is that Amber Heard apparently sought to partially fund the Johnny Depp payoff via an insurance policy with New York Marine and General Insurance Co.; the Aquaman actress held a liability policy to protect her (in part) against just such defamation, in the amount of $1 million.
Related: Disney Inadvertently Gives Johnny Depp Huge Jack Sparrow Role
However, New York Marine and General Insurance Co. say that by publishing the notorious Washington Post op-ed that eventually led to the defamation trial, Amber Heard violated and negated her policy, and thus, the insurance company did not have to pay out, even though she had herself already paid Johnny Depp.
Amber Heard has demanded that a court drop the insurance company’s suit against her, claiming that “there is nothing left to dispute” (via Marca). The ruling is still pending.
Both Amber Heard and Johnny Depp have slowly been making their way back into the public eye and are starring in European indie films. Heard most recently starred in In the Fire (which premiered at the 69th Taormina Film Festival in Sicily), while Depp stars in Jeanne du Barry, which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
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Amber Heard will next be seen in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (which is already dealing with some pretty big issues of its own), while Johnny Depp is reportedly open to returning to the Disney family, particularly as he has some apparently big financial problems himself.
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