After being denied the right to appeal the court’s ruling after losing his libel case against The Sun newspaper, and was ordered to make an initial payment of £630,000 ($841,733) to cover its legal fees, it has seemed like Johnny Depp’s career has gone downhill since then. The British paper described Depp as a “wife-beater” in a 2018 article about allegations made by his ex, Amber Heard. A judge said the actor’s lawsuit could not succeed because The Sun’s lawyers had proved what the newspaper reported was “substantially true.” By the year of 2016 Amber Heard came to the conclusion that she should join in this train of destruction and took Johnny Depp to court. She alleged that at the time of filing for divorce, an incident had recently taken place in which Depp threw his phone at her, leaving her with a bruised face. However, a police spokesman told People that an investigation into the domestic incident radio call found that no crime had taken place. Depp denied these accusations and through his representatives said Heard was “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.” In many cases, it seemed like Amber Heard was just trying to ruin Johnny Depp’s career, take some money from him and leave with absolutely nothing after the case between them. For example, Heard testified under oath at a deposition, but a settlement was eventually reached after she withdrew her request for a domestic violence restraining order. She also rescinded her spousal support request of $50,000 a month and “Heard received $7 million from the divorce but donated it to charity, according to People.”

By 2017 the divorce between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard was finalized. In the following year Heard wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in which she spoke about the treatment of women in domestic abuse cases. In the op-ed, Heard wrote: “I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.” In 2019, Depp sued Heard for $50 million for defamation over the WaPo article. The suit said that Heard “is not a victim of domestic abuse, she is a perpetrator,” and denied that Depp ever abused her. Instead, the suit said that Heard’s allegations were part of an “elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity” for the actress. Depp’s lawyers said: “The op-ed depended on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her.” In a court filing that attempted to dismiss Depp’s defamation suit, Heard detailed multiple instances of alleged abuse that she said occurred during their marriage and referred to him as “the Monster,” per Variety.

In January of 2020, phone recordings obtained by the Daily Mail were released. In these recordings, Heard admitted to “hitting” Depp. Heard is heard saying: “I’m sorry that I didn’t… hit you across the face in a proper slap, but I was hitting you, it was not punching you. Babe, you’re not punched. “I don’t know what the motion of my actual hand was, but you’re fine, I did not hurt you, I did not punch you, I was hitting you.” Meanwhile, Depp said in the recording: “I left last night. Honestly, I swear to you because I just couldn’t take the idea of more physicality, more physical abuse on each other. “Because had we continued it, it would have gotten f—ing bad. And baby, I told you this once. I’m scared to death we are a f—ing crime scene right now,” Depp continued. Heard replied: “I can’t promise you I won’t get physical again. God, I f—ing sometimes get so mad I lose it.”

Since January many people and companies have joined their selected sides; Ryder and Paradis provided information to support Johnny Depp’s honesty throughout this case although on the other hand a spokesman from “The Sun” newspaper joined the side of Amber Heard. After this case Depp has been asked to be resigned and replaced from many of his roles such as, Grindelwald in “Fantastic Beast 3”, Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean” and Tim Burton has more likely has removed him from many roles in the future.