The court battles between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are far from over, but the former couple appears to have reached a significant point in that battle following the decision by a U.K. court to stop the appeal by Depp's side following a ruling against him in his libel case against The Sun. Amber Heard's side has mostly, and understandably, only spoken through attorneys in response to the ruling, but Heard herself has now made a sort of statement via her Instagram feed, through the use of two images of her wearing the same dress.
The two pictures were taken four years apart but show Amber Heard wearing the same clothes in two very significant moments. The first, from 2016, shows Heard on a day when she got a restraining order against Johnny Depp. The second picture, taken last summer, shows Heard wearing the same dress when she went to testify against Depp in the libel case that just ended when Depp's appeal was denied.
While Johnny Depp's libel case was not against Amber Heard directly, the case largely hinged on her testimony. Depp had sued the U.K. paper The Sun over it referring to him as a "wife beater," and so Heard's claims of abuse at the hands of Depp were at the center of it all. In the end the judge found in favor of The Sun largely because he found Heard's testimony to be "substantially true." It makes the day she testified in that trial a significant day in this ongoing battle, and that's what Amber Heard is clearly referencing with these two pictures, drawing a parallel between these two days she spent in court regarding Depp.
While the judge initially ruled against Johnny Depp because he found Amber Heard to be truthful, the appeal was based on the claim that she lied. Depp's legal team argued that the actress had not donated her $7 million divorce settlement, which she claimed she had done, and thus, in telling this one apparent lie, the rest of her testimony was in question. The court hearing the appeal did not find that the statement had a significant impact on the decision, though it did not make a claim as to the statement's truthfulness.
While this chapter in the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard legal battle is over, both sides are now likely getting ready for the next phase. Johnny Depp's lawsuit for defamation against Heard is currently set to begin proceedings in early 2022. Heard has also filed a countersuit for defamation against Depp.
The fact that the defamation cases won't be heard until next year, they've been delayed several times due to the pandemic, means that we might get something of a lull in this ongoing legal battle. However, even with the extra time, it seems unlikely these two sides will settle their differences out of court.
