Until I started writing this column, I could not have told you what the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial was about.
I knew it took place in Virginia, not too far from where I live, because my friends would tell me about the crowds that would gather outside the courthouse every day. I knew young teenagers and adults — many of whom could not have told you who Kate Moss was before this trial — had become obsessed with coverage of Depp and Heard’s testimonies on TikTok. I knew Depp wrote cryptic messages on the walls of his house with blood from a finger that had been allegedly sliced off during one of his heated fights with Heard, that Heard allegedly defecated in his bed and tried to blame it on her dog, and that the one thing I have in common with Depp is that we both enjoy a “mega pint” of wine on occasion.
But what I still do not understand is why I know any of this at all. What started as a trial about defamation and libel somehow became a highly publicized and televised therapy session in which a famous Hollywood ex-couple spent several weeks revealing just how toxic and mentally unstable the other person was — and no one even batted an eye. Quite the opposite. Drama-hungry and desperate to revel in the insanity of others, the public lapped it up. And yet I guarantee that most of the people who paid attention to the trial could not tell you a single thing Heard wrote in the 2018 Washington Post op-ed on which the trial was supposed to be centered. They could, however, point you to any number of pictures of Depp passed out after a drug binge.
Thankfully, our justice system is still sane enough to parse through the relevant and irrelevant and thoroughly chaotic testimonies that Depp and Heard gave. The jury’s decision, released on Wednesday, was really the only possible conclusion: They ruled that both Depp and Heard were crazy, but Heard more so. Heard now owes Depp $15 million, and Depp owes Heard $2 million. Talk about an expensive breakup.
Of course, there are other conclusions to be drawn. Depp’s triumph does, in part, put another nail in the coffin of the “Believe all women” nonsense that the Left has been pushing for the past few years. Put simply, he proved what most men have known for a long time: that women can and do lie.
Yet it still remains true that women make up the overwhelming majority of domestic abuse victims and that encouraging them to come forward and protect themselves and their families is of the utmost importance. Heard said in a statement that she’s worried the jury’s verdict will have the opposite effect and shame women who are thinking about bringing their stories to light. I very much doubt that. There are many reasons women who experience abuse and trauma are hesitant to speak up, but I can’t imagine Heard, who allegedly chucked a vodka bottle at Depp’s face and admitted to “hitting” him on one or more occasions, will be one of them.
The truth is that no one really won this case because there was nothing to win. Two deeply disturbed individuals who built a marriage on vindictive insecurity and fame spent weeks litigating that marriage and its many failures in front of the entire world. They put on display the worst parts of themselves — not because they wanted to help others or be helped, but because they hoped doing so might hurt the other person irreparably. Which is why I know much more than I should about Depp’s alcoholism and Heard’s drug abuse and the mental health struggles that plagued them both.
Whether Depp was right to take this to trial is none of my concern. It was his choice — just as it was Heard’s to file a countersuit. But what I do know is that nothing about this is worth celebrating. There is no side to take, no team to defend — only a marriage to mourn and an example from which to learn.
