Amber Heard has agreed to pay Johnny Depp $1 million to end their legal dispute over her alleged defamation, according to a source close to the situation.
Heard will pay the seven-figure sum to put an end to their contentious legal wrangling, which started soon after their 2016 split.
"After a great deal of deliberation, I have made a very difficult decision to settle the defamation case brought against me by my ex-husband in Virginia," she wrote on Instagram.
"It’s important for me to say that I never chose this. I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed," the statement explains. "The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimized when they come forward. Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to."
Heard added that the agreement places no limitations on her ability to discuss the case or the breakdown of her marriage.
"I have made no admission, this is not an act of concession," she stated. "There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward."
She compared the trial to Depp's lawsuit against the Sun for labeling him a "wife-beater." In that case, which he lost, Heard testified on behalf of the publisher, and her allegations of abuse were corroborated.
"When I stood before a judge in the UK, I was vindicated by a robust, impartial and fair system," she said.
"Even if my US appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a re-trial where a new jury would have to consider the evidence again," she wrote. "I simply cannot go through that a third time."
Amber admitted that the emotional and financial burden of a second trial would be too much to bear.
