In this file photo taken on May 26, 2022 Actor Amber Heard leaves for the day during the Depp vs Heard deformation trial at Fairfax County Court in Fairfax, Virginia. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)
Washington: Actress Amber Heard announced on Monday that she had made the "very difficult" decision to settle the multimillion dollar defamation case brought against her by her former husband Johnny Depp.
Heard, in a post on Instagram, did not reveal the terms of the settlement, which comes after a Virginia jury ordered her to pay $10m to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star.
Heard said she was dropping her appeal of the damages awarded by the jury and settling the case because she "simply cannot go through" another trial.
"I make this decision having lost faith in the American legal system, where my unprotected testimony served as entertainment and social media fodder," she said.
"Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to," Heard said.
The jury found Depp and Heard liable for defamation -- but sided more strongly with the "Pirates" star following an intense six-week trial riding on bitterly contested allegations of domestic abuse.
The jury awarded $10m in damages to Depp after finding that a 2018 newspaper article penned by Heard on her experience of "sexual violence" was defamatory.
Heard, who had countersued, was awarded $2m.
The case, live streamed to millions, featured lurid and intimate details about the Hollywood celebrities' private lives.
