Amber Heard will have to sell an expensive gift that she once received from Elon Musk in order to pay Johnny Depp after she lost their defamation trial.
Heard used to be in a relationship with the founder of Tesla and Space X and that meant that she has been on the receiving end of many gifts from the South African billionaire.
One of these gifts was a Tesla Model X car. The electric vehicle can go 628km on a single charge and it boasts 1,200 horsepower. Despite being quite a big car, it can do 0 to 100km/h in 2.1 seconds and has a top speed of 250km/h.
There has been controversy in the past as to whether she brought the car herself given she is an actress who can afford such things, or if it was indeed a gift from Musk. Given it is the fully equipped version of the car, it is worth around 130,000 US dollars.
The judge in the defamation trial between Depp and Heard ruled that a 2018 Washington Post editorial that Heard penned did defame the Pirates of the Caribbean star.
The jurors’ unanimous decision capped a seven-week trial in a Virginia courtroom which featured dozens of witnesses and experts weighing in on whether Depp was abusive to Heard – or vice versa – during their 15-month marriage.
Recall that Heard filed for divorce from Depp in May 2016 and obtained a temporary restraining order against him, releasing a statement saying that, “During the entirety of our relationship, Johnny has been verbally and physically abusive to me. I endured excessive emotional, verbal and physical abuse from Johnny, which has included angry, hostile, humiliating and threatening assaults to me whenever I questioned his authority or disagreed with him.”
In response Depp’s council said that, “Amber is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse”, and that, “He is unable to attend the hearing on this matter and has not heard Amber’s specific allegations against him. He nonetheless has every intention of staying away from Amber and will stipulate to mutual stay-away and personal conduct orders
Depp was awarded 15 million dollars but that was later reduced to 10.35 million dollars because of a limit to punitive damages under state law.
Heard won on one count of her countersuit, in which she demanded $100m and argued she was defamed by a Depp press agent who called her allegations “an abuse hoax” aimed at capitalizing on the Me Too movement. She was awarded $2m.
