By Blessing Udeobasi
Following Hollywood actor Johnny Depp’s victory in the defamation suit against his ex wife, Amber Heard, the actress has spoken up about how she feels after losing in the lawsuit.
36-year-old Heard who took to Instagram to react said she is disappointed and sad at what the verdict means for women’.
“The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence and sway of my ex-husband,”
“I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.
READ ALSO: Amber Heard ordered to pay $8m as Johnny Depp wins defamation case
“I believe Johnny’s attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the U.K. I’m sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American — to speak freely and openly.” she wrote.
A panel of seven in Fairfax yesterday awarded the Pirates of the Caribbean star a total $15 million in damages. The judge, however, reduced the $5million punitive damages he could receive to $350,000 because Virginia law caps punitive damages in these cases at $350k.
However, the actress won her second of three counts in her $100 million counterclaim against her ex-husband, with the jury finding that Depp’s attorney Adam Waldman did defame her when he told the Daily Mail she set up Depp in a hoax when the police came to their apartment in May 2016.
