Johnny Depp loses libel case against UK newspaper for calling him 'wife-beater'

Hollywood actor Johnny Depp has lost his high-stakes libel action in the London courts against the prominent UK newspaper after it described him as a “wife-beater”. According to The Guardian, the court refused to award the Pirates of the Caribbean star compensation for damage to his reputation at the end of one of the most widely followed libel trials of the century. The 57-year-old actor sued the tabloid's publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor Dan Wootton over the 2018 article, which referred to "overwhelming evidence" that he attacked ex-wife Amber Heard during their relationship. 

Johnny Depp loses libel case 

According to the daily tabloid, the judge said that Depp has not succeeded in his action for libel. Further, the judgment stated that the defendants [The Sun and News Group Newspapers] have shown that what they published in the meaning which has held the words to bear was substantially true.

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The long-awaited decision came out on November 2, more than three months after the high court hearing finished in late July. Depp, 57, had sued the newspaper’s publisher after they carried the headline “Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife-beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?”

News Group Newspapers relied on a defense of truth to the claim. The burden of proof was on the Sun to demonstrate that the story was substantially accurate on the balance of probabilities.

During the hearing, Depp was asked about his rock’n’roll lifestyle, drug-taking, his attitudes towards women, and friendships with other performers such as The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, the musician Sir Elton John and the writer Hunter S Thompson.

The case ran for 2 years in the court and has witnessed disturbing accusations of violence, celebrity affairs, threesomes, the loss of $750 million, and marriage-ending poop attacks. However, in one of the trials, Amber Heard confessed that Johnny Depp is ‘generous, loving and a remarkable man’ when sober. Amber Heard also clarified that there was this other side of him which was a monster.

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(Image credit: Johnny Depp/ Instagram)