Amber Heard walked away from millions in ‘Pirates’ money in divorce from Johnny Depp: unsealed court docs
Amber Heard walked away from tens of millions of dollars in “Pirates of the Caribbean” money when she divorced Johnny Depp, newly unsealed court documents from the ex-couple’s defamation trial claim.
In the recently unveiled legal filings verified by The Post, lawyers for Heard, 36, said she could have received an eight-figure payout considering how much Depp, 59, was set to make from the fifth installment of the Disney franchise.
The actor began filming “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” right after the couple got married in 2015, and because the two did not sign a prenup, Heard was technically entitled to half his earnings, the document states.
But the “Aquaman” actress apparently declined to seek a share of the wages, saying she didn’t want Depp’s money, her lawyers wrote in the filing.
In an email to Heard submitted as an exhibit, the attorneys called her, “amazingly true to your word that this is not about the money.” Heard had maintained her marriage and divorce to Depp weren’t about the money.
Her attorneys mentioned at trial that she took less cash than she could have during the split, against her counsel’s advice. She ultimately struck a $7 million divorce settlement in 2016 that she pledged to donate to charity.
Getting more cash at the time could have helped with Heard’s apparently dire financial situation. Her trial attorney Elaine Bredehoft said during an interview after the jury handed Depp a $10.35 million verdict that Heard was “broke” and couldn’t afford to pay up.
The jury also awarded Heard $2 million over her claims that Depp’s lawyer made false and damaging comments about her. Both sides have appealed the verdict.
Heard recently sold her home in the Yucca Valley, TMZ reported, netting $1,050,000. She had purchased the home in 2019 for around $570,000. Previously, it was been reported that was she set to seek solace there after losing the trial.
Depp’s agent had testified at the trial the actor was set to make $22.5 million for the sixth installment of the “Pirates” franchise had it gone into production. It was rumored Depp made more than $33 million for the fourth movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” so it’s likely his payout for the fifth film was in the same ballpark.
Much of the details surrounding their divorce proceedings did not make it into the trial, after Fairfax, Virginia Judge Penney Azcarate rejected the inclusion of the evidence.
But Depp’s lawyers did zero in on the $7 million Heard got in the divorce that she had pledged to donate to a California children’s hospital and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Heard had said she had already given the donations, and later clarified under oath that she only pledged the money, but not paid it in full, in part because Depp sued her.
The trove of unsealed documents are full of new details that never made it to the courtroom proceedings.
Among the thousands of pages of documents are text messages between the actor and Marilyn Manson and his team’s apparent attempt to bring up Heard’s “brief stint as an exotic dancer” at trial.
The unsealed documents also revealed that Depp’s lawyers fought to exclude evidence related to Heard’s claims that she was targeted by Russian “bots” in a negative social media campaign allegedly orchestrated by the actor.
Heard’s lawyers alleged that Depp controlled social media accounts to target her and that these “bots” worked to spoil job opportunities. They argued that Depp’s then-attorney Adam Waldman had previously represented a high-profile Russian businessman, hence the Kremlin connection.
Depp’s team successfully argued that Heard’s theory was implausible and that Waldman’s clients were irrelevant to the case.
