Three months after the verdict in his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp says he is “in a much better place.” Reports claim that a close friend of the 59-year-old Edward Scissorhands star has revealed that “he is actually in a much better place lately. He takes better care of himself.”
The insider says, “He is dating and genuinely seems happy,” about Depp who is dating Joelle Rich, one of the lawyers from his U.K. libel lawsuit. The source says that throughout his six-week trial against Heard, 36, “Johnny’s ugly sides were exposed.”
“He has never claimed he is perfect, but making changes is hard. He has worked on issues and accepted help,” the insider adds. On Thursday, a source told PEOPLE that Depp and Rich are dating. The source said, “They are dating, but it’s not serious.”
Rich is a lawyer in London who worked on the actor’s team when he sued The Sun for libel in 2020 and lost.
He sued the newspaper for calling him a “wife-beater,” but the court said that the outlet’s claims were “substantially true,” and his ex-wife Heard testified to back up the claims. In March 2021 he tried to change the decision but failed.
In the defamation case that Depp had against the Aquaman actress in Fairfax County, Virginia, this year, his new girlfriend was not one of his lawyers.
He won the case because a jury decided that Heard’s 2018 opinion piece in the Washington Post about domestic violence was defamatory, even though she didn’t name him. Depp was given more than $10 million in damages and Heard was given $2 million after she won one of her three counterclaims for defamation.
In a statement released after the recent verdict in Virginia, Depp said that the jury “gave me my life back” and that the “best is yet to come” for him. On the other hand Amber Heard said it was a “setback” for women who speak up.
Rich wasn’t Depp’s lawyer this time, but she did show up in court more than once to show her support. She was seen with Depp outside the courthouse on May 3 and hugging the actor’s lawyer Camille Vasquez in the courtroom on May 16.
According to her bio, Rich “helps individuals and families in the public eye protect their privacy and reputations” and has “expertise in libel, privacy and copyright disputes.”
She “works to defend [clients’] reputations against false and defamatory allegations in print, online and on social media.” Rich’s law firm also defended Meghan Markle against the Mail on Sunday’s publishers last year.
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