The pair finalized their divorce in 2017 after a contentious split.
Johnny Depp is suing Amber Heard.
The 55-year-old actor filed a defamation suit against his ex-wife, according to multiple reports. He's asking for damages in excess of $50 million. ET has reached out to Depp's rep for comment.
In the suit, obtained by The Blast, Depp claims that Heard's allegations of abuse against him were an "elaborate hoax," taking issue with a Washington Post article Heard wrote in December 2018, which Depp alleges caused damage to his career. He says he was dropped from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise four days after the op-ed was published.
Though Heard never mentioned Depp by name in the article, the report says the suit claims that the piece "depends on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her.” Depp has denied he ever abused Heard.
"Ms. Heard purported to write from the perspective of ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse’ and claimed that she ‘felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out’ when she ‘spoke up against sexual violence,'" the lawsuit says, per the report, claiming that Heard used her accusations against Depp to "advance her career." The suit also claims that Heard "is not a victim of domestic abuse; she is a perpetrator."
According to the report, the lawsuit goes on to mention an incident between Depp and Heard on May 21, 2016, when Heard claimed Depp attacked her. The actor claims to have neutral third-party witnesses, surveillance camera footage and the testimony of two separate police offers that refute Heard's claims of abuse.
Heard was granted a temporary restraining order against Depp after the alleged incident, following her claims that she “lived in fear that Johnny will return to the residence unannounced to terrorize me, physically and emotionally.”
Per the report, in the suit, Depp also details a 2015 incident one month into his and Heard's marriage, where he claims she threw a glass vodka bottle at him, which shattered when it made contact with his hand. He alleges his finger had to be surgically reattached and claims Heard “disseminated false accounts of this incident, casting Mr. Depp as the perpetrator of his own injury.”
"Ms. Heard also knew that her elaborate hoax worked: as a result of her false allegations against Mr. Depp, Ms. Heard became a darling of the #MeToo movement, was the first actress named a Human Rights Champion of the United Nations Human Rights Office, was appointed ambassador on women’s rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, and was hired by L’Oreal Paris as its global spokesperson," the lawsuit claims, according to the report.
In a statement to ET, Heard's rep says: "This frivolous action is just the latest of Johnny Depp’s repeated efforts to silence Amber Heard. She will not be silenced. Mr. Depp’s actions prove he is unable to accept the truth of his ongoing abusive behavior. But while he appears hell-bent on achieving self-destruction, we will prevail in defeating this groundless lawsuit and ending the continued vile harassment of my client by Mr. Depp and his legal team."
Depp and Heard finalized their divorce in January 2017, following her May 2016 divorce filing. They tied the knot just 15 months earlier, in February 2015.
As part of their divorce, Depp was ordered to pay Heard $7 million, which she chose instead to have donated to several charities.
"The donation will be divided equally between the ACLU, with a particular focus to stop violence against women, and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, where I have worked as a volunteer for the past 10 years alongside organizations like the Art of Elysium," she said in a statement to ET at the time. "Over the years, I have seen firsthand how more funding for staffing, better equipment and better medication can make the difference between life or death for a child."
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