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Amber Heard ‘Wants to Focus on Her Baby Girl’ After Johnny Depp Verdict: ‘She Is Still Upset’ (Source)
Amber Heard is leaning on family following the verdict in the defamation case brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp.
After the jury sided mostly with Depp, awarding him $10.35 million in damages and her $2 million in damages for her countersuit, Heard, 36, issued a statement saying she is “disappointed” by the verdict, which she called a “setback” for women.
A source tells PEOPLE that Heard is “still upset” about the decision, but she’s focusing on being a mom after losing quality time during the six-week trial held in Fairfax, Virginia. The Aquaman actress welcomed her first baby, daughter Oonagh Paige, back in April 2021.
“Amber spent the weekend with her baby daughter. She is frustrated about the verdict,” says the source, adding that Heard “just doesn’t understand how” the seven-person jury reached their decision “with all the evidence her legal team presented.”
“She is figuring out the next legal step,” the source added.
(On Thursday morning, Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft confirmed that they plan to appeal the verdict, claiming “lopsided” social media attention could have swayed the jurors.)
The source adds, “For now, she wants to just focus on her baby girl. The trial took away a lot of special mommy time. Amber is looking forward to a summer with her daughter and family.”
Days before the trial began, Heard shared a photo on Instagram with her baby daughter playing with pink balloons as they celebrated her first birthday. “My little O is a year old today. I still can’t believe you’re here. The greatest year,” Heard captioned that post.
On the witness stand during the trial, Heard testified about facing death threats and seeing people threatening her child online. She said through tears, “I am harassed, humiliated, threatened every single day. Even just walking into this courtroom, sitting here in front of the world, having the worst parts of my life, things that I’ve lived through, used to humiliate me. People want to kill me, and they tell me so every day. People want to put my baby in the microwave, and they tell me that.”
Meanwhile, a source recently told PEOPLE that Depp, 58, is “focused on himself” right now: “He is absolutely looking ahead and past this. He’s looking for positivity and to move away from negativity.” The source added that the actor is “happy” and “relieved” after the verdict.
“He’s figuring out what he does next. He feels like he’s been vindicated,” the source said. “He feels a significant weight off his shoulders. It’s been six years of this. It’s been so gratifying to hear from men and women — he’s heard a lot of positive support from both men and women.”
Depp, in his post-verdict statement, said he felt like he’d been given his “life back” and that the “best is yet to come” for him. The actor — who has two adult kids, daughter Lily-Rose, 23, and son Jack, 20, with ex Vanessa Paradis — added, “Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that.”
In her statement after the verdict, Heard said she was “heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence and sway of my ex-husband.”
She added, “It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.”
“I believe Johnny’s attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the U.K.,” she continued. “I’m sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American — to speak freely and openly.”
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