Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation trial seven years later, there could be no doubt: this was our new world. Not only were these two characters the personification of “post-truth” – basically the triumph of feeling over fact – but to judge by the social media commentary, a vast swathe of the 500 million who tuned into YouTube every day from across the globe were also being led by feeling over fact.
And despite all the damaging details that emerged against Depp, the overwhelming feeling was that Amber Laura Heard of Austin, Texas, was the villain: a “lying”, “fame-hungry”, “money-grabber”, intent on destroying “our Johnny”.
Depp may have lost his libel case with The Sun – who claimed he was a wife beater – less than two years prior, but on 13 July 2022 a Virginia judge ruled against the 37-year-old Aquaman actress, finding that an op-ed she had written for the Washington Post in which she accused the actor of domestic abuse was indeed defamatory, and ordered Depp to be paid $10.
35 million in damages. One year on, the 59-year-old actor is in Cannes, getting seven-minute standing ovations for his new period piece, Jeanne du Barry – in which he plays King Louis XV – being greeted by chants of “We love Johnny!” from his fans on the Croisette and attending glitzy Christian Dior dinners, having recently signed a $20 million three-year deal with the fashion and fragrance brand to continue to be the face of Dior Sauvage.
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