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Johnny Depp: Many Hollywood stars appear to ‘unlike’ actor’s post celebrating Amber Heard trial win

Stars who supported him at the time have seemingly had second thoughts about making their views public

Jacob Stolworthy
Tuesday 09 August 2022 04:45 BST
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Watch moment Johnny Depp wins defamation trial against Amber Heard

Several Hollywood stars have seemingly unliked Johnny Depp’s Instagram post celebrating his trial win against Amber Heard.

Depp sued Heard for $50m (£40.1m) for allegedly implying he abused her in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed. Although she didn’t name him, he claims her allegations impacted his ability to work.

Heard then filed a countersuit accusing Depp of allegedly orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her and describing his own lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment”.

In June, the jury shared their verdicts, finding that Heard had defamed Depp on all three counts.

She was demanded to award him $10m (£8m) in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages. Heard was found to have a partial win in her case and was awarded $2m in compensatory damages, but no punitive damages.

Over the course of proceedings – and Depp’s previous legal case against The Sun – a number of prominent celebrities offered their take on the couple, with a huge number of Hollywood stars throwing their support on Depp in the form of Instagram likes.

After the couple shared respective posts discussing the verdict, a large number of famous people liked Depp’s post, with Heard notably receiving much less support.

However, it’s now being reported that, for reasons unclear, many of these celebrities have now unliked the post.

The names were highlighted by Twitter user @k4mil1a, who cross-referenced the post with pre-existing lists compiled by Reddit users at the time.

The celebrities whose names previously appeared under the post, but no longer appear include Elle Fanning, Bella Hadid, Orlando Bloom, Robert Downey Jr, Zoey Deutch, Sophie Turner, and Bullet Train star Joey King.

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The post Johnny Depp shared after Amber Heard defamation trial verdict was revealed

Others who have appeared to unlike Depp’s post include Jennifer Coolidge, Christina Hendricks, McKenna Grace, Riley Keough, Bruce Campbell and Sam Fender.

Musician Fender came under fire after sharing a photo alongside Depp taken in a Newcastle pub on the same day the trial verdict was announced. He went on to apologise for the “disrespectful” timing of the image, underneath which he called Depp a “hero”.

The discovery of the apparent unlikes come after the unsealing of documents related to the case that weren’t allowed to be addressed in court.

These documents included several potentially damaging anecdotes about Depp that Heard’s team were not permitted to mention, and also included further quotes from video testimonials given by famous figures including Depp’s ex-girlfriend, actor Ellen Barkin.

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