April 11, 2023, marks the one-year anniversary of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s defamation trial. The highly sensationalized and televised event was more of a phenomenon than a judicial proceeding, with each courtroom session being broadcasted for feeding the masses and filling the quotas of their relentless social media algorithm for the duration of the entire trial and its 51 days.
Conducted within the grounds of Fairfax County Courthouse, the partisans of the defamation trial have now moved halfway across the world to find normality in Europe, far from Hollywood’s prying eyes. But while Johnny Depp gets back to making films and enjoying a social life beyond controversy, Amber Heard, in the meantime, has not been so lucky.
Amber Heard Calls Out the Unfair Judicial System After Trial
Actress and activist, Amber Heard has been vocal about her trials and tribulations over the course of her marriage to Hollywood star and veteran actor, Johnny Depp, for a long time now. But for all her outcries and tear-stricken confessions on the stand, there have been double the number of memes and harrowing subversion of her sanity on social media. While a faction of the people sympathized with her situation, a greater number of the masses were taken up with the factor of entertainment that the trial provided.
After the June 1 verdict, Heard expressed her disappointment by stating that she had “lost faith in the American legal system,” and that “popularity and power” had more to do with its outcome than “reason and due process.” A source close to the actress, a year after the beginning of the defamation trial, spoke on her behalf, claiming:
“The trial was beyond stressful for her and she just wanted to start fresh, out of the country. She was exhausted and disappointed about the trial. She felt she was mistreated. This is all behind her now, though.”
The London libel trial ruled in favor of The Sub when the judge claimed there was enough substantial evidence to support their claim of calling Depp a “wife-beater”. However, the defamation lawsuit that Depp later filed against Amber Heard in the US yielded a different outcome since the jury found cause to support Depp’s claims of being defamed via Amber Heard’s op-ed in The Washington Post.
Amber Heard Finds Normality A Year After Defamation Trial
In the aftermath of the June 1 verdict, Amber Heard’s life under the exposure of the American media became too horrific to bear, especially as the Aquaman actress was also a new and single mother to a one-year-old in 2022. When the settlement was finalized in December 2022, she moved to Spain to live out her days with her daughter, Oonagh Paige, secluded on the Meditteranean island of Mallorca. Heard has divided her time between friends, family, and the majority of it, she spends with Oonagh who only recently turned 2 years on April 8.
Despite the popular vote, Heard found solidarity and support from numerous women within the industry, and while Heard’s current living situation may not be ideal, the actress has found a semblance of normalcy once again. “She is excited about working and filming again […] She has new energy and is focused on things that she loves,” the source claimed to People. While moving to Hollywood currently may be a bit out of the question, it may not be impossible in the coming years for the 37-year-old.
Depp, on the other hand, has already moved on with two other big-budget projects, including a French language film that will premiere at Cannes and a directorial biopic project.
Source: People
