Johnny Depp's $50m defamation case against Amber Heard is heading to court
With no sign of any settlement, it looks like Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are heading to court to fight out Depp's defamation suit against his ex-wife.
A judge in Virginia yesterday set a date of February 3, 2020, for a trial, which is thought will last around 12 days, according to The Blast.
A motion by Heard's legal team to have the case dismissed will happen later on today.
Read more: Amber Heard says she got death threats after Depp abuse claims
Depp is suing Heard over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post, in which she described herself as 'a public figure representing domestic abuse'.
He's seeking $50 million in damages from Heard, who he has accused of 'painting on bruises', and claims that in fact he was the victim of abuse in their relationship.
In turn, in response to Depp's accusations, Heard has made detailed statements accusing Depp of drug and alcohol dependency.
She also said that Depp 'hit me multiple times, shoved and pushed me to the ground, choked me, and spit in my face' following an ecstasy bender in Australia in 2015, and in another incident later that year 'slapped me hard, grabbed me by my hair and dragged me from a stairwell to the office to the living to the kitchen to the bedroom and then to the guest room'.
Depp and Heard married early in 2015, but by 2016 Heard had taken out a restraining order on her husband, who she met while making the movie The Rum Diaries.
Read more: Depp accuses Heard of ‘painting on bruises’
They divorced the following year, with Depp settling with Heard for $7 million, which she donated to charity.
As the time, the couple released a statement saying that there was 'never any intent of physical or emotional harm' in their relationship.
However, since the op-ed piece, Depp has claimed that Heard threw a bottle of vodka at him during a row, severing his finger, and detailed an incident in which he said either Heard of one of her friends defecated in his bed.
In a statement to People in May, his lawyers said: “Ms. Heard, the self-appointed leader of the #metoo movement despite a prior arrest and incarceration for violent domestic abuse, now faces a growing mountain of evidence including new female victims coming forward, a fraudulent letter to Homeland Security, scheming in writing with her lawyer to suborn witness perjury, and her infamous hoax getting obliterated by 24 sworn eyewitnesses, 2 police officers, 87 video surveillance tapes, audio tape, and her own sworn confessions of violence.”
