Amber Heard may be a successful movie star, but her attorney says she doesn’t have the cash to pay the $10 million in damages she now owes her ex-husband, Johnny Depp. The actress's lawyer said on Thursday that she fully expects her client to appeal the ruling.
The Aquaman star's attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, sat down for an interview with Savannah Guthrie of NBC’s Today show on Thursday, where she doubted her client’s ability to pay the eight-figure penalty she’s on the hook for.
“Is she able to pay a 10.4-million-dollar judgment,” Guthrie asked, to which Bredehoft shook her head and responded: “Oh no, absolutely not.”
The actress had reportedly amassed a $9 million fortune as her acting career took off. However, Celebrity Net Worth has noted that her assets have taken a nosedive following her loss in the $50 million defamation trial brought by her ex-husband—and now pegs her net worth at -$6 million.
During the interview, Bredehoft expressed the sorrow felt by Heard.
“One of the first things that she said is, ‘I am so sorry to all those women out there; this is a setback for all women in and outside of the courtroom,’” she said, adding that the actress “feels the burden of that.”
Guthrie then asked the attorney if she felt “stunned” that the jury essentially had essentially rejected the actress’s story.
“What happened here—is that it is a tale of two trials. Johnny Depp brought a suit in the UK for the same case, and the burden of proof was easier for him there,” the actress’ lawyer explained. “And the court found there —and we weren’t allowed to tell the jury this — but the court found that Mr. Depp had committed at least 12 acts of domestic violence, including sexual violence, against Amber.”
The host then grilled Bredehoft on the verdict: “Is there any other way to interpret this verdict, though, that this jury for whatever reason—and I hear you on some of the evidence that they didn’t hear—listening to Amber Heard, did not believe a single word?”
“That’s because she was demonized,” Bredehoft responded.
The jury found that Heard did defame Depp and awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages, and $5 million in punitive damages. The judge presiding over the case reduced the punitive damages to $350,000.
Source: Celebrity Net Worth, Insider