Newspaper TODAY | Shakira confirms her separation from Piqué

Jurors at the six-week trial, in which the former couple traded allegations of domestic violence, sided with Depp.

Thus, Heard was ordered to pay him $10.35 million for defaming him in a 2018 Washington Post editorial in which she never mentioned the actor’s name but indirectly described him as representative of “domestic abuse.”

For his part, Depp (58 years old) will have to pay the actress 2 million dollars for damages. Heard’s 36-year-old attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, said Thursday that her client couldn’t afford the damages she was awarded.

Judge Penney Azcarate decided weeks before the trial began to allow cameras into the state court, fearing that if she didn’t, too many reporters would turn up for this high-profile case.

“I don’t see any good reason not to do it,” Azcarate said, according to Variety, a decision that the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star’s attorneys welcomed and Heard’s attorneys fought.

Michele Dauber, a law professor at Stanford University and an activist against campus sexual assault, called it “the worst decision for survivors of a courtroom in decades” that showed “a profound lack of understanding on the part of the judge.” of sexual violence”.

Heard was forced to “describe her alleged rape in graphic detail on television. That shocks the conscience and should offend all women and survivors, regardless of whether they agree with the verdict or not,” she stressed.

The last time she could remember a rape survivor being forced to testify publicly was in 1983, she explained.

“There is no way to justify the judge’s decision to allow cameras in this case… There is no public interest in this case that can compensate for the damage caused,” he opined.

Instead, he argued, “all victims will think twice before coming forward and seeking a restraining order or telling someone about any abuse they are experiencing after this.”

“Women can be injured or even killed as a result of not seeking help. This case has been a complete disaster”, she maintained.

The trial captivated a global audience not used to seeing allegations of sexual assault and intimate partner intimacy in court and that, regardless of opinions about the verdict, is a problem, said Ruth Glenn, president of the National Coalition Against Intimacy. Domestic Violence.

“I don’t think we have a society yet that understands the dynamics of domestic violence,” Glenn told AFP in an interview.

That crucial context was not discussed enough during court proceedings in Fairfax, Virginia, she argued, emphasizing that for her and her colleagues there was “no question” about the patterns of abuse on display.

“Make sure there are people present who understand that. And until you do, we don’t televise this,” she said.

“OPEN MISOGYNY”

Dauber, who has been abused online for tweeting about the case, also said it underscores the growing backlash against women’s rights in the United States.

Public opinion was solidly on Depp’s side, with Heard the target of countless online posts and memes, some of which Dauber described as “overt misogyny.”

The verdict was greeted with celebration by many on the political right, he noted, including Twitter posts from Donald Trump Jr, son of the former Republican president (2017-2021), and the powerful House Republican Judiciary Committee (lower).

Heard was “metaphorically tarred and feathered,” and the verdict “makes clear that, for now, the backlash against women’s rights is taking over,” she wrote. Additionally, she cited fears that the US Supreme Court would strike down the right to abortion.

For many, the case has raised questions about the future of “#MeToo,” the movement spawned from the 2017 hashtag that encouraged women to speak out against men who had abused them.

“It’s impossible not to see this as a backlash to #MeToo, as if women have gone too far. Okay, ladies, we listened to you and locked up a couple of men. Don’t get too greedy, now,” one Reddit user wrote in a blog post for the Embedded Substack newsletter.

Tarana Burke, who founded the #MeToo movement, posted a defiant Twitter post listing her accomplishments and asking followers to focus on the millions who now speak out shamelessly instead of playing ping-pong between legal wins and losses.

“This movement is very ALIVE,” he wrote.

But Glenn was more philosophical.

“I would say I don’t know how much traction we had gained anyway. So let’s use this as a reminder of the work we still have to do,” he told AFP.

Newspaper TODAY | Shakira confirms her separation from Piqué