Actress Amber Heard recruited attorney Roberta Kaplan to defend her from the USD 50 million lawsuit filed against her by ex-husband and actor Johnny Depp.
Roberta Kaplan is a well-known name. She is the co-founder of Time’s Up Legal Defence Fund. According to reports from Variety, Kaplan has represented women in similar cases who were sued for making sexual abuse allegations.
Heard is facing a defamation suit filed by Depp in March. This comes three months after Heard published an op-ed in the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, in the article, Heard implied to the backlash she faced after accusing Depp of domestic violence.
However, Depp denied the claims by Heard, which first arose during their 2016 divorce. Depp, in the defamation suit, alleged that all the publicity around the issue caused him financial harm. This includes Disney’s decision to drop him from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise. Kaplan however, argued that Depp was not mentioned in the op-ed.
She wrote that contrary to the premise of Mr. Depp’s case, her client(Heard) never wrote about Depp or the time “during their marriage.” Further, she said that the op-ed “was about her and what happened to her after she came forward”.
THE AMBER-DEPP FEUD
Heard and Depp married in a private civil ceremony at their home in Los Angeles on February 3, 2015. Soon, Heard filed for divorce from Depp on May 23, 2016. Also, she obtained a temporary restraining order against him and stated that he had been verbally and physically abusive throughout their relationship. Their legal battle got widespread media attention and their divorce was finalized in January 2017.
Later, Depp paid Heard a settlement of US$7 million, which she donated to the ACLU and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
The former couple had also issued a joint statement saying that their “relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile”. They added that neither party made “false accusations for financial gain.”