Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard: What we know about Heard’s career, background and family life

While Amber Heard’s tumultuous relationship with Johnny Depp has made headlines, the 36-year-old is an actress, activist and model herself.

The two are currently embroiled in a legal battle with Depp suing Heard for $50million (£38.2million) for suggesting he abused her in 2018 Washington Post op ed.

Below is a detailed look at who Amber Heard is, including her early life, film and television career, and everything in between.

Early life

Amber Laura Heard was born on April 22, 1986 in Austin, Texas to David Heard and Paige Parsons. She has a younger sister Whitney Heard who is now 34 years old. The two grew up in a conservative Catholic household with modest finances. In her younger years, Heard competed in beauty pageants. At the age of 16, her best friend died in a car accident, which is why Heard became an atheist. She dropped out of school at 17 to pursue a modeling career in New York, before later switching gears to try her hand at acting in Los Angeles. She finally earned her high school diploma through a home study course.

acting career

In 2004, Heard appeared in two music videos; Country artist Kenny Chesney’s “There Goes My Life” and rock band Eisley’s “I Wasn’t Prepared”. She also landed small supporting roles in a number of television shows including Jack & Bobby (2004), The mountain (2004) and That’s OK (2005).

She made her film debut in 2004 with a supporting role in the sports drama friday night lights, which later inspired the TV show of the same name. Heard got her first starring role in the thriller All boys love Mandy Lane, which premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. However, due to distribution issues, it wasn’t released until 2008 in Europe and 2013 in the US.

In 2007, Heard made guest appearances on a teen drama Hidden Palms and sitcoms Calibration. In the same year she appeared in the short film Day 73 with Sarah, and the indie film Remember the daze.

Best Acting Roles

It wasn’t until Heard’s role in 2008 in the comedy-action film Pineapple Expressalongside Seth Rogen, James Franco and Danny McBride, that she found mainstream recognition.

She later appeared in Zombieland in 2009 and alongside Depp in 2011 The rum diarybased on the 1998 novel of the same name by Hunter S. Thompson. She also had another prominent role in the 2015 comedy-drama Magic Mike XXL.

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Her portrayal of Mera in the DC-Verse in the 2017 film justice league is perhaps her most notable role and one that she reprized in the 2018 film Aquaman with Jason Momoa and its sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdomwhich is expected to premiere in 2023.

Personal life

In 2020, Heard posted an Instagram photo announcing her mother’s death.

Almost a year later, she shared the news of her first child, daughter Oonagh Paige Heard, born April 8, 2021, through a surrogate mother.

Captioning the photo, she explained, “Four years ago I decided I wanted to have a child. I wanted to do it on my own terms. I now appreciate how radical it is for us women to think about one of the most fundamental parts of our destiny in this way. I hope we get to a point where not wanting a ring to have a crib is normal.”

The father’s identity has not been released.

Heard has since been private about motherhood, typically posting photos with Oonagh’s face obscured or facing off-camera.

dating history

Heard dated photographer Tasya van Ree from 2008 to 2012 and came out as bisexual in 2010.

In 2012, Heard and Depp reportedly started dating. The couple is said to have met on the set of The rum diary. They got engaged in 2014 and married in 2015, and Heard filed for divorce five months later in 2016.

Heard was rumored to be dating actress and model Cara Delevigne in 2016. Though this has never been confirmed, Depp’s boyfriend Josh Drew reportedly testified in a 2019 statement — in preparation for the current defamation lawsuit — that Heard had an affair with Delevigne during her marriage to Depp.

Heard is believed to have dated billionaire Elon Musk between 2016 and 2018. Depp suspected the couple were having an affair, and during his lawsuit with The sunText messages between Heard and Musk were read in court.

She then began dating art dealer Vito Schnabel in 2018, with their relationship lasting less than a year.

Her last relationship was with camerawoman Bianca Butti from 2020 to 2021. The pair dated quietly, with butti even accompanying Heard to many of her court hearings. The two are reported to have split due to distance.

legal past

During Depp and Heard’s 2016 divorce proceedings, it was revealed that Heard had been arrested in Washington state in 2009 on a domestic violence misdemeanor. She allegedly grabbed Van Ree and punched her arm, but she was never charged.

Afterwards, Van Ree issued a statement saying the incident had been “misinterpreted and over-sensitized” and that Heard had been “wrongly” blamed.

In 2018, Depp sued the publishing company News Group Newspapers The sunfor allegedly defaming an article published in the tabloid in April this year, headlined: “Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be ‘really happy’ casting wife-beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts movie?”

The case came before the court in 2020. Heard testified as a witness for The sun.

In August 2020, in response to his defamation lawsuit, Heard filed a $100 million countersuit against Depp, accusing him of allegedly organizing a “defamation campaign” against her and his own lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment.” “ referred to.

Depp lost the libel fight in November 2020 when Judge Andrew Nicol said the defendants had proven their allegations against Depp to be “essentially true,” as reported by The Associated Press back then.

activism

When Heard isn’t flying between filming locations, she maintains a significant philanthropic presence. She campaigns for women’s and children’s rights. She dedicates her time to humanitarian organizations including Amnesty International and Art of Elysium, which campaign for human rights around the world, and the Syrian American Medical Society, which helps Syrian refugees.

She was also named a 2018 Human Rights Champion by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Follow here for live updates on the Depp v Heard defamation trial.