Amber Heard Pays Johnny Depp $1 Million Settlement 1 Year After Trial, Depp to Donate It to 5 Charities

Amber Heard’s $1 million settlement money has been issued to Johnny Depp, closing out their Virginia defamation case a year later.

A source close to Depp says the actor, 60, will divvy up the payment to five charities of his choosing, with $200,000 going to each. The organizations are: Make-A-Film Foundation, The Painted Turtle, Red Feather, Tetiaroa Society, and Amazonia Fund Alliance.

A rep for Heard did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

After both Depp and Heard made appeals following the June 1, 2022 verdict, they decided to drop them and reached a settlement that was announced in December.

In a statement at the time, Heard, 37, said the “very difficult decision” to settle was “not an act of concession.”

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“It’s important for me to say that I never chose this,” Heard wrote. “I defended my truth, in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed. The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways women are re-victimized when they come forward.”

“Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to,” she continued. “I have made no admission. This is not an act of concession. There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.”

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Heard said she was “exposed to a type of humiliation that I simply cannot re-live” during the live-televised trial and she “simply cannot go through that for a third time.”

She added at the time, “I cannot afford to risk an impossible bill — one that is not just financial, but also psychological, physical and emotional. Women shouldn’t have to face abuse or bankruptcy for speaking her truth, but unfortunately it is not uncommon.”

“… I will not be threatened, disheartened or dissuaded by what happened from speaking the truth. No one can and no one will take that from me. My voice forever remains the most valuable asset I have,” Heard said.

Also in December, Depp’s attorneys Benjamin Chew and Camille Vazquez issued a statement about the settlement.

“The jury’s unanimous decision and the resulting judgement in Mr. Depp’s favor against Ms. Heard remain fully in place,” they said. “The payment of $1 million — which Mr. Depp is pledging and will (actually) donate to charities — reinforces Ms. Heard’s acknowledgement of the conclusion of the legal system’s rigorous pursuit for justice.”

Depp recently made a public appearance at opening day of the Cannes Film Festival last month. Meanwhile, Heard, who now lives in Spain with her daughter, will attend Italy’s 69th Taormina Film Festival for the world premiere of her movie In the Fire on June 24.

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