Amber Heard finally admitted she had not paid the $3.5 million she pledged to donate to the ACLU from her divorce settlement.
On Monday, the actress took the stand in a libel trial for cross-examination and testified that her ex-husband Johnny Depp’s lawsuit had kept her from honoring her promise to donate the sum.
Heard has claimed several times that she donated her entire 7-million divorce settlement to charity. On the Dutch talk show RTL Late Night in 2018, she said: “$7 million in total was donated – I split it between the ACLU and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. I wanted nothing.”
Also, in the 2020 libel case with Depp in the UK, Heard claimed under oath that “the entire amount of my divorce settlement was donated to charity.”
However, she said yesterday that the full donation has yet to be made due to Johnny’s March 2019 $50 million lawsuit against her. “I fully intend to honor all of my pledges. I would love for him to stop suing me so I can,” she added.
ACLU Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel Terence Dougherty testified earlier in the case, saying they had only received $1.3 million donated by or on behalf of the actress. Heard contributed $350,000 directly in 2018 and another $350,000 was paid from investment company Fidelity’s fund.
The amount the ACLU’s received also included $100,000 paid by Depp and a $500,000 payment that came from investment firm Vanguard’s account. Dougherty said he believed that donation was “a fund set up by Elon Musk.”
Heard’s claims on how Depp’s lawsuit kept her from fulfilling her pledge to donate the entire $7 million divorce settlement came when the actress testified in her ex-husband’s defamation case against her on Monday. The actor has sued Heard for $50 million over the op-ed on domestic violence she wrote for the Washington Post, repeatedly denying any abuse towards her.
The high-profile case resumed with her testimony continuing after a week-long pause.
Yesterday, Heard said she had filed for divorce from Depp because she believed she “wouldn’t survive,” but explained she didn’t want to leave him because she loved him so much.
The actress has accused Depp of repeated psychological, physical and sexual abuse cases.
Heard also stated that Depp had punched her and squeezed her neck while aboard the Orient Express train during their 2015 honeymoon. She also said she feared Depp would accidentally kill her.
