The legal battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has come to an end, at least until Heard files her promised appeal. However, the results of the recent defamation case are still a major topic of conversation. Depp has publicly stated his happiness with the result and Heard has stated her disappointment. And yet, through it all, Heard admits there is still some love for her ex.
In an interview with Today (via Deadline), Amber Heard says that even after the contentious lawsuit and countersuit, and through the abuse that she says she suffered at the hands of Johnny Depp, which a jury found was grounds for awarding Depp more than $10 million in damages, there are “no bad feelings” towards the actor. Heard explains…
I love him. I love him with all my heart. And I tried my best to make a deeply broken relationship work. And I couldn’t. I have no bad feelings or ill will towards him at all. I know that might be hard to understand or it might be really easy to understand. If you have just ever loved anyone, it should be easy.
As contentious and vitriolic as the various legal battles have been considering some of the statements that came out both in the defamation and the earlier libel case brought by Johnny Depp against a UK paper, it’s hard to imagine either party saying they will love the other. At the same time, there was love there once, and sometimes those feelings never go away entirely, even if you sometimes wish they would.
Both Amber Heard and Johnny Depp were awarded damages in their respective defamation cases against the other, but Depp was awarded significantly more. It all stemmed from a Washington Post op-ed in which the Aquaman actress admitted to being a survivor of domestic abuse. That op-ed was at the center of Depp’s claims of defamation, arguing that it had resulted in him losing his role in Disney’s successful Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Despite the ruling, Amber Heard says she stands by the op-ed and does not regret having written it.
How the results of this case will impact the careers of both stars is unclear. A recent rumor claimed that, despite principal photography being completed on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, there were now plans to recast Heard’s role in the DC film. Her side has denied any such claims. For his part, Depp has been largely out of the spotlight on screen having lost both the Pirates role and his Fantastic Beasts role. Depp does have a new role on the horizon. Time will tell if this result will put him back in Hollywood’s good graces.