Johnny Depp scores victory over Amber Heard’s $7m divorce settlement pledge

Actor Johnny Depp has won a legal battle against ex-wife Amber Heard that will force a charity to reveal whether the actress lived up to her promises to donate her $7 million divorce settlement.

The "Aquaman" star pledged to donate half her divorce settlement with Depp to the American Civil Liberties Union and Children's Hospital Los Angeles after the couple split in 2016, reports Independent.

However, Depp's lawyer Andrew Caldecott has argued that the promised donation was "a calculated and manipulative lie" that "tipped the scales against Mr Depp from the very beginning".

He also alleged that the Children's Hospital Los Angeles wrote to Depp's business adviser in 2019 to inform them Heard had not made any payments.

Lawyers for The Sun's publisher rejected the arguments in court in March, saying Heard did not lie about the donations because she was pledging to pay the sums over 10 years.

A New York judge has now partially granted a petition by Depp's legal team, which will force the ACLU to release documents that confirm whether or not Heard followed through on her pledge.

In November, Depp lost a libel lawsuit in London against the publisher of The Sun tabloid, which had labeled him a "wife beater" in a 2018 headline after Heard accused him of abuse in Los Angeles in 2016 as they were ending their short, volatile marriage. The case pitted Depp against a powerful tabloid and its editor, with Heard as their star witness.

The High Court ruling came after a three-week-like trial in July, during which Depp and Heard both took the stand and both were damaged by lurid testimony about drinking, drug use, fighting and room-trashing. The judge ruled that "the great majority" of Heard's claims of abuse, as presented by the tabloid's publisher in its defense, were mostly true.