Amber Heard slams Johnny Depp over delay to £37m legal battle amid filming clash

Amber Heard has slammed ex-husband Johnny Depp after his legal team requested his upcoming defamation trial against her be delayed.

The Hollywood actor, 57, is suing Ms Heard, 34, for defamation in the US, in a case separate from his libel trial in the UK against News Group Newspapers (NGN).

Mr Depp requested the court in Virginia postpone the trial until a date between March and June 2021 because he is due to begin shooting for the next instalment in the Fantastic Beasts franchise in January.

Filming had been set to kick off in January of this year, but was put off amid the coronavirus outbreak.

However, Ms Heard’s legal team filed papers on Saturday that accused Mr Depp of “making no effort whatsoever” to stick to dates and of treating the court as “subservient”.

Ms Heard goes on to claim that Mr Depp and his lawyer, Adam Waldman, have gone about “a daily campaign to destroy her reputation and career through social media, the internet and the press”.

She also pointed out that she is also scheduled to start filming Aquaman 2 in February, which would also clash with the trial.

Her lawyers wrote: “Although Mr Depp had been contacted in late June or July with the proposed filming dates, he did not alert them to the trial dates.

“Mr Depp decided that, rather than speak with his employer to work his film commitments around his trial, he asks this court to subserviently reschedule around his employment and the entire film schedule and production.”

Mirror Online has reached out to Mr Depp for comment.

Mr Depp’s filed documents, seeking delay of the trial, were obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, reading: “When the Court set the current trial date in this case, Mr Depp understood that Warner Bros planned to shoot Fantastic Beasts 3 in London long before 11 January, 2021.

“Covid-19 disrupted the studio’s plans, causing repeated postponements.

“With conditions in London having improved somewhat, Warner Bros has now set a shooting schedule that conflicts with the trial date in this case…

“Mr Depp would face potential liability for breach of contract should he fail to comply with the schedule contractually dictated by Warner Bros.

“Though Mr Depp is eager to proceed to trial, he faces an untenable situation over which he has no control.”

Mr Depp is suing Ms Heard over a 2018 article she penned for The Washington Post.

The piece did not mention Mr Depp by name, but he contends that it implied he was violent toward her – something he firmly denies.

The title of the piece read: “I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”

Mr Depp has insisted he was never physically assaulted Ms Heard, and has claimed that she was violent toward him, which she denies.

He is suing her for $50 million (£37.2 million) in Virginia, where The Washington Post is printed.