The acrimonious relationship between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard will be revisited in a new book by journalist Nick Wallis.
“Depp v Heard: The Unreal Story,” due out May 17, covers the two jaw-dropping trials that unfolded in the wake of the couple’s stunning 2016 split.
“This is an attempt to pull apart the evidence from both the UK and US trials and piece together what really happened,” Wallis told The Post in a Saturday email.
“I’ve used (often conflicting) testimony, witness statements, transcripts, texts, emails, photographs and other documents from both trials and tried to lay it all out so that anyone reading the book can come to their own, informed, conclusion about what happened, and answer the question as to how the UK courts believed Amber Heard and why an American jury didn’t.”
A freelance journalist and broadcaster who has worked for the BBC, Private Eye, and ITN, Wallis says he is the only journalist to cover both trials extensively.
Johnny Depp waves as he leaves the courtroom in his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 18, 2022. POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesWallis claims to have attended London court nearly every day in 2020 to watch Depp lose his libel caseagainst The Sun, which had labeled him a “wife-beater.”
He reported attending every day of last year’s Virginia trial, where the“Pirates of the Caribbean” star won his defamation case against the“Aquaman” actress over a 2018 op-ed Heard wrote for the Washington Post, claiming to be “a public figure representing domestic abuse.”
“The Unreal Story” is said to provide insight into the sexual politics, culture wars, and intense social media attention surrounding the trials.
“I thought they were two troubled, but fascinating human beings, trying to find their way in the world,” Wallis told the Daily Mail.
“They went through an extraordinary process, played out on a global stage. I never thought it was sordid or grim.”
Amber Heard testifies at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 5, 2022. POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesChapter titles are a nod to some of the Virginia trial’s biggest headlines, including “The Tattoo Incident,” “The Disco Bloodbath,” “The Plane Kick,” “The Bottle Rape,” and “The Closed Fist Punch.”
Wallis told The Post neither Heard nor Depp had direct or “to the best of my knowledge” indirect participation in the book.
A rep for Depp declined to comment when contacted by The Post on Friday.
The Post also reached out to a rep for Heard.
Al Pacino and Johnny Depp leave the private screening and master class of the film “Donnie Brasco” at the Pantheon cinema in Paris on April 26, 2023. Best Image / BACKGRIDThe former lovers met in 2009 on the set of the Bruce Robinson-directed film “The Rum Diary.”
After two years of dating, they got engaged in 2014 and married on Depp’s private island in 2015.
Heard filed for divorce just 15 months later, and it was finalized in 2016.
In 2018, Heard penned her op-ed — which resulted in Depp filing a $50 million defamation lawsuit against her.
Heard filed her own $100 million countersuit in 2020.
Amber Heard waits before the jury announced a split verdict in favor of both Johnny Depp and Heard on their claim and counter-claim in the Depp v. Heard civil defamation trial at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, on June 1, 2022. POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesIn 2022, Virginia jurors awarded Depp $5 million in punitive damages and $10 million in compensatory damages.
The jury also awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages in her counterclaim, but no punitive damages.
