Heard Admits Failing to Donate Divorce Settlement to Charity, Tells Depp to ‘Stop Suing Me So I Can’

After the divorce between celebrity couple Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, the actress vowed she would split the $7 million she received in an out-of-court settlement with her former spouse between the American Civil Liberties Union and a California children's hospital.

Amber Heard has acknowledged that she failed to fulfill her pledge to donate the entire $7 million from her divorce settlement with Johnny Depp in 2016 to the American Civil Liberties Union and Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

As she took the stand to testify in the ongoing defamation trial launched against her by ex-husband, Johnny Depp, she said she had received the entire amount of her settlement by October 2018. However, she had yet to make the full donation “because Johnny sued me for $50 million in March of 2019".

"I still fully intend on honoring all of my pledges… I would love [Depp] to stop suing me so I can," said Heard.

The 'Aquaman' actress said that she "promised the entirety of it to charity because I was never interested in Johnny's money." She revealed she had selected the ACLU as a recipient of part of her funds because she believed in its mission. As for the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, she said that having volunteered there for more than a decade, she had seen "first-hand how more funding for staffing, better equipment and better medication can make the difference between life and death for a child."

On being asked by her lawyer in direct examination if the aforementioned donations had a deadline, Heard replied, "There are none. They understand."

Appearing on Dutch talk show RTL Late Night in 2018, Amber Heard had said that, “$7million in total was donated - I split it between the ACLU and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. I wanted nothing.”

However, earlier in the libel trial, Terence Dougherty, the ACLU Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, testified that the organisation never received the full $3.5 million it was promised. Only a total of $1.3 million has been donated either by Heard or on her behalf, he said, with the actress purportedly paying $350,000 directly in December 2018.

She had failed to make any donations since that time, the executive claimed, adding that $100,000 was paid by Depp and another $350,000 had been received from a fund at investment company Fidelity. Another $500,000 payment is said to have been made from an account at investment firm Vanguard, which, according to Dougherty's testimony, "was a fund set up by Elon Musk."

Amber Heard dated the Tesla chief executive Elon Musk after she broke up from Johnny Depp.

Elsewhere in the trial, the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star’s accountant and business manager Edward White testified that Heard initially demanded $4 million after the divorce in May 2016. According to him, the demands “continually increased” with the final settlement totaling $7million.

The American actor and producer, winner of a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards and two BAFTAs, is suing his former wife for $50 million. He has alleged that she defamed him in an opinion piece she published in The Washington Post (printed in Fairfax County) in December 2018.

In the piece, Heard claimed to have been a victim of domestic abuse, although she never directly named Depp.

After the op-ed appeared, Depp and his former lawyer denounced Heard's claims, contending that the allegations harmed his career, and filed a suit in March 2019, which stated:

“Ms Heard is not a victim of domestic abuse, she is a perpetrator.”

Amber Heard countersued for $100 million, claiming Depp defamed her when his legal team referred to her assertions as a “sexual violence hoax”. The trial is being held in Fairfax, Virginia. When the actress concludes her testimony she will be cross-examined by Depp's legal team.