Johnny Depp waiting to see his reputation washed away by English justice
The American actor Johnny Depp will find out on Monday if the English justice agrees to "clean" his reputation, with the verdict in a high-profile defamation case against the British tabloid The Sun, which presented him as a violent husband.
The Hollywood star, who traveled to Spain in September to present "Crock of Gold", a biopic about Irish singer Shane MacGowan, at the San Sebastian Festival is not expected to travel to London to hear the court decision.
Billed as "England's biggest defamation trial of the 21st century," the case brought out the dirtiest rags in July from the tumultuous marriage between "Pirates of the Caribbean" star and actress Amber Heard between 2105 and 2017.
For three weeks, a London court heard lurid stories of drug abuse, feces in the marriage bed, suspicions of infidelity and a finger severed by a bottle during a violent fight.
- Damaged stroke -
Many wondered why, at 57, one of Hollywood's most famous actors risked exposing his intimacy and his extravagant lifestyle for all to see.
Depp sued The Sun's publishing group, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its CEO, Dan Wootton, for portraying him in an April 2018 article as a "wife beater," assuming he hit Heard, something he has always denied.
He denounced that the newspaper's claims had damaged his career and claimed that he needed to "clean up" his image.
NGN defended that it was based on 14 alleged cases of abuse by Depp of Heard, which it detailed in great detail during the process.
But according to British legal commentators the tabloid has a high chance of losing to the very strict English libel law, which requires the media to prove its claims.
- Marital violence -
Acknowledging his abuse, the actor said during the trial that in his years of marriage to Heard, he used drugs so much that he was "in no condition" to hurt the 34-year-old model and movie star.
And that he had never laid his hand on a woman, a claim supported by the written testimonies of his ex-partners Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder.
Depp met the actress from "The Danish Girl" and "Aquaman" on the set of "Diario de un seductor" ("The Rum Diaries" in Spain) in 2011 and they were married in February 2015 in Los Angeles. They divorced two years later.
The actress then spoke of "years" of "physical and psychological" violence, accusations that Johnny Depp vehemently denied.
During the divorce proceedings, Heard withdrew the complaint from her and he gave her seven million dollars that the actress gave to associations.
In London, his lawyer said that far from being responsible for marital violence, Depp had suffered it at the hands of his young wife, presented as a manipulative and "compulsive liar" who for years concocted an elaborate "deception" to propel the career of the.
Called as a witness by The Sun, Heard defended that she loved her husband and that she remained by her side in the hope that she would detoxify from drugs and alcohol. But she said she feared Depp would kill her with her outbursts of violence.
NGN's attorney described him as a man "subject to irrational mood swings" when he had drunk and used drugs.
And she assured that no witnesses attended the violent acts because, by nature, marital violence takes place "behind closed doors."
