Last week, a jury found Aquaman actress, Amber Heard liable for defamation against her ex-husband, Pirates of The Caribbean star, Johnny Depp — a highly anticipated verdict from a trial that took over the news cycle for weeks.
Here is a timeline of Depp and Heard’s relationship leading up to their tumultuous breakup and legal battle.
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ICYMI, after weeks of social media being taken over by Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s live-streamed trial, the jury finally reached its verdict.
The 36-year-old Aquaman actress was found liable for defamation, after alleging in a Washington Post op-ed that her ex-husband, Depp, abused her.
Without further ado, let’s unpack the timeline of their relationship leading up to their high-stakes, televised trial.
The pair first met back in 2009 on the set of The Rum Diary , a film based on Hunter S. Thompson’s famous novel.
“Working with Johnny was torture. It was better than I ever imagined, which is really saying something,” Heard told Vogue in 2011.
By early 2012, the pair had started dating.
It was around this same time that Depp and his then-girlfriend, Vanessa Paradis, announced their 14-year relationship was over. The pair share two children together, Lily-Rose, 22, and John Christopher (AKA Jack), 20.
Heard, who was in a relationship with Tasya van Ree, announced their split at the same time.
In 2014, Heard was seen wearing an engagement ring that was later confirmed by Depp.
“It’s probably a dead giveaway, isn’t it? Not very subtle,” he told the Daily Mail at the time.
In 2015, the pair tied the knot at a private ceremony at their home in Los Angeles, but their marriage was short-lived.
In 2016, Heard filed for divorce and filed a restraining order against Depp, alleging that he had physically abused her.
Depp denied the initial accusations, claiming that Heard was just “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.”
By the end of summer 2016, a settlement of $7-million was reached, and they released a joint statement to the public regarding their relationship.
“Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain,” the statement reads.
“There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm,” it continues .
By 2017, their divorce was finalized, and fans thought they had heard the last of their relationship. But the following year, things took a turn.
In 2018, Heard wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post claiming that she was a survivor of domestic abuse.
“I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she wrote .
While Depp’s name wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the op-ed, in 2019, he sued Heard for $50-million for defamation.
The suit presented a very different narrative than the one Heard had been telling, alleging that she was “not a victim of domestic abuse,” but the “perpetrator.”
It also suggested that the op-ed was an “elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity.”
In July 2020, Depp went to court against the publisher of The Sun , after he published an article in 2018 calling him a “wife-beater.”
The court ruled against Depp in the three-week libel trial, however.
Four days later, he was “asked to resign” from his role as Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3.
In April 2022, Depp’s defamation suit against Heard began in Fairfax, Virginia.
The televised, juried trial lasted seven weeks and sparked a social media and news frenzy. Fans of Depp showed up to the courthouse throughout the trial to show their support for the actor.
On June 1, 2022, the jury ruled in favor of Depp and awarded him $10-million in damages.
The jury also ruled in favor of Heard’s countersuit against Depp’s lawyer, awarding the actress $2-million in damages as a result of defamatory statements.
