Johnny Depp is “in a much better position recently,” three months after the judgment in his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard. According to a source close to the 59-year-old Pirates Of The Caribbean star, that he is actually in a much better place lately and he takes better care of himself.
“He is dating and genuinely seems happy,” the insider adds of Depp, who PEOPLE recently verified is dating Joelle Rich, one of the attorneys from his libel lawsuit in the United Kingdom. According to the source, “Johnny’s ugly sides were exposed” during his six-week trial against Heard, 36. “He has never claimed he is perfect, but making changes is hard. He has worked on issues and accepted help,” the insider continues.
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How did Johnny Depp meet Joelle Rich?
On Thursday, a source confirmed Depp’s relationship with Rich, telling PEOPLE, “They are dating but it’s not serious.” Rich is a London lawyer who represented the actor in his libel action against The Sun, which he lost in November 2020.
He sued the newspaper for referring to him as a “wife-beater,” but the court upheld the newspaper’s charges as “basically true,” and his ex-wife Heard testified to back up the claims. His effort to overturn the decision was rejected in March 2021. In the slander case against the Aquaman actress in Fairfax County, Virginia, this year, Depp’s new love interest was not among his lawyers.
Rich “assists individuals and families in the public eye in protecting their privacy and reputations,” according to her bio, and has “expertise in libel, privacy, and copyright conflicts.” She “works to defend [clients’] reputations in print, online, and on social media against false and defamatory charges.”
Johnny Depp, 3 months after the defamation case
Johnny Depp won the defamation case; a jury determined that Heard defamed him in her 2018 Washington Post op-ed alleging domestic violence, even though she did not name him. Depp was granted more than $10 million in damages, while Heard was awarded $2 million for one of her three defamation countersuit allegations. (Both are appealing their verdicts.)
Depp claimed in a statement following the recent Virginia verdict that the jury “gave me my life back” and that the “best is yet to come” for him. Meanwhile, Heard called it a “setback” for women who speak up.
Though Rich was not on Depp’s legal team this time, she did appear in court multiple times to show her support. On May 3, she was caught with Depp outside the courthouse, and on May 16, she was photographed hugging the Pirates of the Caribbean actor’s attorney Camille Vasquez inside the courtroom.
Source: People
