Johnny Depp Scores Win in Lawsuit Against Ex-Wife Amber Heard

A Virginia judge granted Tuesday Hollywood star Johnny Depp the right to pursue his defamation against his ex-wife Amber Heard.

The actor is suing Heard over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed Heard wrote about surviving domestic violence.

Heard never mention Depp by name, but she did accuse him of domestic violence amid their 2016 split, a claim which he denied.

Fairfax County Chief Judge Penney Azcarate also denied Heard's supplemental plea to dismiss the case after the actor lost last November his case against the British tabloid "The Sun", which called him a "wife-beater." The UK High Court has upheld the outlet's claims as being "substantially true".

In March 2019, the actress filed a plea in Virginia to dismiss Depp's lawsuit. Heard argued the U.K. judgment should hold sway on the proceedings in the U.S. since both lawsuits center on allegations of the actor as an abuser.

Azcarate rejected the actress's plea, noting while Heard's op-ed and The Sun's article may be similar in claims of abuse, the statements made by the tabloid and Heard's in her op-ed were "inherently different".

She added Heard hadn't been named a party in Depp's lawsuit against "The Sun" because her op-ed was published after he sued the tabloid.

Three months after it was published, Depp filed a defamation lawsuit against the actress for $50 million.

Following the loss of his U.K libel case against "The Sun", Depp attempted to appeal but two U.K. justices​​ refused his application for a fresh trial because a second hearing was unlikely to produce a different outcome.

The actor was also forced to exit the role of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the "Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts" franchise.