Amber Heard has filed a defamation lawsuit against comedian Doug Stanhope, after he wrote a scathing article for The Wrap, claiming that she is blackmailing her estranged husband Johnny Depp.
The article, entitled ‘Johnny Depp Is Being Blackmailed By Amber Heard – Here’s How I Know’, paints Heard as a manipulator who falsified her domestic violence allegations in a plot against the actor.
In a filing made in Arizona Superior Court on Friday, Heard slammed the allegations as “completely false and defamatory.” She is seeking the “maximum possible jury award”, which she plans to donate to a domestic violence shelter.
Heard’s lawyer Charles J. Harder made a statement to the media, saying:
“The Complaint alleges that Stanhope is a close friend of Johnny Depp and, as part of a coordinated effort, wrote a highly defamatory article about Ms. Heard, filled with completely false, highly defamatory and very hurtful statements. Ms. Heard seeks the maximum possible jury award, and will donate 100% of the proceeds from the lawsuit to Chrysalis, a domestic violence shelter in Arizona, in an effort to counter the setback made to women by the defendant’s defamatory article and related wrongful acts.”
The filing contains further allegations against Depp, referring to his marriage with Heard as a “cycle of substance abuse and violence.” It also accuses Depp and several other unnamed parties of defamation, reading, in part:
“Depp and his representatives further ‘went on the offensive’ … repeatedly making false public allegations about Heard to the press, accusing her of being manipulative, a blackmailer, and blaming her for the breakup of the marriage – as if Depp’s alcoholism, drug addiction, and campaign of violence against his wife played no part.”
Source: Variety.
Photo: Jon Kopaloff / Getty.
