12 Surprising Facts About Amber Heard

Amber Heard was born in Austin, Texas, and grew up riding horses and hunting with her father. She has described her upbringing as tomboyish, which helped her develop an independent, tough attitude early on.

At a young age she left high school, moved to New York to model and later moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. She started with small roles in TV series and low-budget films before her breakthrough.

Although Heard had already appeared in films, she became widely known through the martial arts film Never Back Down. The role opened doors to bigger projects like Zombieland (2009) and The Rum Diary (2011), where she met Johnny Depp.

In 2015 Amber Heard married Johnny Depp, but the marriage lasted only about 15 months before ending in a very public battle full of allegations of abuse on both sides. The legal proceedings that followed changed her career and reputation for good.

In 2016 Heard sought a restraining order against Depp, alleging domestic violence. Depp denied the allegations and in turn accused her of being abusive. A UK court ruled in 2020 against Depp in his libel case against The Sun, finding the paper's 'wife beater' claim substantially true, while audio recordings later played in the US trial also portrayed Heard in a harsh light.

The 2022 defamation trial between Heard and Depp in Virginia was one of the most watched and discussed court cases in entertainment history. Depp sued over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which Heard described herself as a survivor of domestic abuse, without naming him.

The jury found that Heard had defamed Depp and awarded him 10.35 million dollars in damages, later reduced to the legal maximum of about 8.35 million. On her counterclaim, the jury found that Depp's lawyer had defamed her in one statement and awarded her 2 million dollars.

After the verdict Heard said the trial had been overwhelmed by social media campaigns against her and questioned whether the jury could have been unaffected. She gave interviews saying she stood by her testimony.

After the trial Heard largely disappeared from major film projects. Petitions demanded her removal from Aquaman 2, and she has said her role was cut back significantly.

After the verdict, Heard's lawyers said she couldn't pay the full damages. In December 2022 the two reached a settlement: Heard's insurers paid Depp one million dollars, which he said he would donate to charity, and both sides dropped their appeals.

After the trial Heard moved to Madrid, Spain, where she lives a much quieter life with her daughter away from Hollywood and the media spotlight.

Many expected Warner Bros. to drop her from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), but she kept her role as Mera, albeit with much less screen time. Whether she will return to major Hollywood roles remains to be seen.