One of the main sticking points of all of the back and forth between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in recent years goes back to their divorce and the money Heard allegedly committed to charity after the divorce went down. Beyond writing an Op Ed in the Washington Post that now has a lengthy editor’s note following the verdict, the actress had said she was giving the proceeds from the divorce away to charity. One of the sticking points in the trial was that most of that money never got donated, but if things had gone differently, an agreement may have kept money from being a major sticking point at all.
As the term post-nuptial was used repeatedly, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard had hired a lawyer to work out an agreement regarding assets after they tied the knot in February of 2015. However, during the defamation trial it came up that the lawyer hired had quit before an agreement was in place. She spoke for Ms. Heard’s side during the trial and revealed how a drunken rant allegedly put the kibosh on those plans.
During the televised trial, an attorney who previously represented Amber Heard, Michele Mulrooney, said that Depp and his lawyers had “one telephone call” with the Pirates actor present where he “slurred” his words. She alleged on the stand during the defamation trial the actor appeared to be drunk. Additionally, she was asked to explain what she heard on the call, noting,
My recollection is that he was very mean, he called me names, and that he fired me on behalf of Amber…Well, my only exact recollection is that he called me a ‘bitch.’
The call deteriorated after 2 or 3 minutes and Michele Mulrooney said it “shook” her “up.” The end result? The lawyer did not create a post-nuptial draft agreement, which ultimately came to a head later after Heard claimed Depp cut off part of his finger because he was angry about potentially losing money. For his part, a huge chunk of Depp’s team’s defense had to do with Ms. Heard saying she would donate money she had earned in the divorce proceedings that records indicate was never donated.
Mulrooney also said during the trial that she could not have actually been fired by Depp as Heard’s client, though she mentioned he had on the stand; regardless, the point is she did not complete the requested agreement. This led Johnny Depp and Amber Heard to spend their marriage without a monetary agreement in place. When they split, this kicked off a chain of events contributing to where we are today.
The two stars are currently in the middle of an appeals process after they both sued one another for defamation in the U.S. state of Virginia. While the lion’s share of the verdict went to Depp, Heard’s team did win a smaller victory and said at the time that a lot of their evidence had been suppressed by the other team. We’ve seen a lot of that evidence come to light in the time since, including evidence of “erectile dysfunction” and more unseen pages in the Depp/Heard defamation trial.
Amber Heard has landed new representation during this appeal process, with lead counsel Elaine Bredehoft leaving her “squad.” Meanwhile it’s unclear when next steps will be taken, but it seems as if this situation is far from resolved.