Johnny Depp files appeal on Amber Heard's $2 million defamation claim

Johnny Depp filed for an appeal on Wednesday over Amber Heard’s earlier $2 million payout.

The Pirates Of The Caribbean star was awarded $10.35 million (£9.23 million) in damages after a June defamation trial - in which a jury ruled his ex-wife falsely claimed in a 2018 Washington Post article that he abused her.

The Aquaman actress was awarded $2 million (£1.78 million) in a countersuit, as jurors ruled that Depp defamed her in an online bullying scheme leading up to the trial.

New court documents obtained by Fox News reveal that Depp has requested Heard’s $2 million (£1.78 million) damages be appealed, saying the court “should reverse the judgment on Ms Heard’s counterclaim” in the defamation case, but that he was otherwise happy with the decision that made him $10.35 million (£9.23 million).

“The jury’s emphatic favourable verdict on all three defamatory statements alleged in his complaint fully vindicated Mr Depp and restored his reputation,” the new documents read. “However, the trial court was confronted with a number of novel and complex legal and factual issues, and although the trial court decided the vast majority of those issues sensibly and correctly, a few rulings were erroneous.”

The filing claimed that the alleged defamation from Depp’s team of Heard was executed through lawyer Adam Waldman, and that Depp is not responsible for Waldman’s actions.

It also claimed that Heard’s original suit failed to prove the defamation against her was executed with “actual malice”.