Johnny Depp has been allowed to move forward with his $50 million defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard. The long legal battle between the two will now have another wrinkle as a Virginia judge has denied Heard’s supplemental plea to dismiss the case according to People. The Aquaman actress believed that the recent ruling in the U.K. libel lawsuit that Depp lost would help speed the process along. However, Fairfax County Chief Judge Penney Azcarate wasn’t willing to throw the former Pirates of the Caribbean star’s lawsuit out. Essentially, Depp sued The Sun for libel because they called him a “wife-beater” in print. The U.K. publication won that legal battle and Heard’s representation believed that the defamation lawsuit’s validity would suffer as a result. Well, the 2019 Virginia case will now move forward as Depp thinks his brand has been irreparably damaged by the op-ed his ex-wife penned in The Washington Post. Further complicating matters for the actress is that she was actually not named as a party in The Sun lawsuit because Depp had filed his suit before she wrote the piece in question. It’s all incredibly messy, and here’s a nice synopsis from the judge.
