It seems as if the world doesn’t talk about Johnny Deep and Amber Heard’s divorce often enough. We, family law attorneys in the Evergreen state, particularly don’t feel as if we’ve talked about them as much as we talk about other celebrity splitters — not that we don’t talk divorce in our Renton offices often enough.
We have only briefly touched on Johnny selling art to fund the divorce, the exes’ Yorkshire Terriers playing a significant role in their separation, and Amber supposedly donating the $7 million divorce settlement to a civil rights group.
We have not gone deeper as to why their divorce is starting to look as tumultuous and protracted as Brad and Angelina’s, sans a child custody dispute. Perhaps it was their wildly differing choice of creative pursuits that ultimately led to their bitter divorce. Then again, maybe not. Perhaps they have more in common with non-celebrity couples who separate because of normal issues: domestic violence (or accusations of it), too much conflict, and financial problems.
An in-deppth look at Johnny and Amber’s marriage and subsequent divorce
Johnny and Amber met in 2009 on the set of the movie The Rum Diary. They had a relationship for six years before marrying in 2015. After just a year of marriage, Amber filed for divorce, alleging domestic abuse. Their marriage may have been private, but their fights were public.
In 2019, Johnny sued Amber for defamation pertaining to the latter’s 2018 opinion piece on The Washington Post in which she talked about domestic abuse and harassment, implicating her Hollywood superstar ex. He also filed suit for libel against the UK newspaper The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater” and for criticizing his casting in the Fantastic Beasts film. Team Depp lost the case. Then, in 2020, he was asked to resign from the film due to his legal troubles. The studio producing the film did not want the PR nightmare that came with casting him.
Despite all that, Mr. Scissorhands’ legal team is working hard to get him his full Fantastic Beasts 3 salary even though he had only shot one scene for the soon-to-be-released film. At the least, he would have extra cash to buy back his Basquiats.
What we’ve heard about Amber
Amber announced in 2016 that she would donate her divorce settlement worth $7 million to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The Aquaman star allegedly hasn’t donated that money — at least not yet.
And Johnny wasn’t going to let her off easy. He won a ruling forcing the civil rights group to reveal if she actually donated the 7 mil. But why did he go through the trouble of exposing Amber’s supposed lie about where she’s putting the divorce settlement money? Isn’t that hers to begin with? And should she decide to use it to buy several boats, wasn’t she well within her rights to do so?
Perhaps Johnny was aiming to expose Amber as a gold-digger and a fraud. After all, proving that Amber lied about donating the entire amount of the settlement could influence the divorce court into thinking that Amber doesn’t have a sterling character. This won’t make Johnny look like the nice guy, either, but he’ll at least stand a better chance at gaining a favorable outcome in his $50 million defamation lawsuit against her.
No one is safe from “cancel culture” (and the messiness of a public, contested divorce)
Johnny Depp recently said that no one is safe from “cancel culture” in reference to his supposed cancelation by the general public and the Hollywood establishment. He said this as he accepted a lifetime achievement award at a film festival.
Clearly not a fan of “cancel culture”, Depp should rest easy. The jury is still out on whether he will get “canceled”. Yes, many of his most recent films are not big earners and not as widely praised as his earlier work. But that’s largely because his recent choices of film work were questionable rather because of his domestic abuse allegations.
Meanwhile, Amber’s legal team is saying that she is forced to make gradual donations to the ACLU instead of donating the entire settlement amount in one fell swoop. They implied that this is because the former Mrs. Depp still needs legal representation (which incurs fees) as the divorce case continues.
Are the former Mr. and Mrs. Depp going to have a divorce as bitter as Brangelina’s? Will their public, acrimonious split get them canceled? We don’t know. If you have questions you need to ask a family lawyer about your divorce in Washington state, call Buckingham, LaGrandeur, & Williams.