Amber Heard called her legal loss a “setback” for women in a statement released just moments after a jury found she’d defamed Johnny Depp in a 2018 op-ed describing herself as a domestic abuse survivor. “The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband,” she said in the statement. “I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.” Depp, who won $15 million in damages, was not in the Virginia courtroom to hear the verdict. A source close to the actor said he was in the U.K. “due to previously scheduled work commitments made before the trial.” On Wednesday, the jury also ruled that Depp’s former attorney defamed Heard, who had filed a countersuit, when he called her abuse claims a “hoax.”
