According to The Sun, the UK Court of Appeal heard today why embattled actor Johnny Depp’s legal team believes he should be granted a retrial in his libel case.
Leading the appeal on behalf of Depp, Andrew Caldecott QC centered his argument on an allegation that was first made in January 2021 against actress Amber Heard. The allegation stated that the actress had falsely claimed that she had donated the $7M settlement from her 2016 divorce with Depp to charity.
Amber had stated in the UK High Court last year that she donated the full amount to charitable causes including L.A.’s Children Hospital Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, and this was cited as evidence that the actress could not be characterized as a “gold digger”.
However, her U.S. lawyer admitted to Deadline that the donations had been “delayed”, but went on to claim that the delay was due to Depp’s legal action against the actress, which had cost her millions of dollars in legal fees.
Read More: Amber Heard responds to ex-husband, Johnny Depp’s $50 million lawsuit
Depp is looking to overturn the decision by Justice Andrew Nicol that he was not libeled by the News Group-owned tabloid when it branded him a “wife-beater” in a 2018 article, with the initial ruling saying the phrase was “substantially true” concerning his relationship with ex-wife Heard.
The verdict was damming for Depp, stating he “did assault Ms. Heard” in multiple allegations of domestic violence. Nicol had also warned that an appeal was unlikely to be successful. Since the verdict, the actor was dropped from Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts franchise and replaced by Mads Mikkelsen.
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