Johnny Depp has made an eye-watering donation to charity. Photo / Getty Images
Johnny Depp has made an eye-watering donation in an attempt to make amends for his ex-wife's failed pledge to charity.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star donated nearly US$800,000 (NZ$1.3 million) to multiple Children's Hospital charities from the sale of NFTs.
It comes after the actor's NFT community, Never Fear Truth, raised a huge sum in donations and has since split the money between the Perth Children's Hospital Foundation, the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, The Footprint Coalition and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.
Speaking to RadarOnline.com, the company announced: "We are pleased to be able to confirm nearly $800,000 in total donations."
The Children's Hospital of Los Angeles was one of two charities, along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), that Depp's ex-wife, Amber Heard, pledged to donate her $7m (NZ$11.3m) divorce settlement to when they agreed the terms of their split in 2016.
She said at the time: "The donation will be divided equally between the ACLU, with a particular focus to stop violence against women, and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, where I have worked as a volunteer for the past 10 years.
"Money played no role for me personally and never has, except to the extent that I could donate it to charity and, in doing so, hopefully help those less able to defend themselves."
However, during the former couple's recent bitter defamation trial, Depp's lawyer questioned the Aquaman actress who later admitted she hadn't fulfilled her pledge.
Heard insisted she had been unable to pay because of ongoing court disputes with her ex-husband.
In court, Terence Dougherty, the chief operating officer and general counsel of ACLU, said in a pre-recorded deposition - which was filmed in December 2021 - the 36-year-old actress was put forward as an ACLU ambassador following her pledge to provide the large donation, but noted it hadn't fully been sent by the time of the deposition.
The organisation had received four payments, with $350,000 (NZ$569,037) paid directly by Heard while, $100,000 (NZ$162,582) came from Depp, and two payments of $500,000 (NZ$812,910) and $350,000 were submitted via donor-advised funds.
Dougherty said the ACLU believes the $500,000 payment came from a fund set up by Elon Musk, who Heard dated following the end of her marriage, and the SpaceX CEO had sent an email to advise the full $3.5m (NZ$5.6m) would be paid over a 10-year period, though it was never confirmed, and the organisation hasn't since received any money.
He said: "We didn't receive any amounts in 2019 and on."
Asked what efforts they have made to get the rest of the money, he replied: "We reached out to Ms Heard starting in 2019 for the next instalment of her giving and we learned that she was having financial difficulties."
Depp's generous donation comes after he won his highly publicised defamation case against Heard in which he was awarded US$15m ($22.5m) in damages, while Heard was awarded US$2m ($3m).
A jury ruled in overwhelming favour of Depp in his libel lawsuit vindicating his stance that Heard fabricated claims in her 2018 Washington Post article that she was abused by Depp before and during their brief marriage.
The jury also found in favour of Heard, who said she was defamed by Depp's lawyer when he called her abuse allegations a hoax.
The jury found Heard had acted with malice in writing the article where she described herself as "a public figure representing domestic abuse". Depp's lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.
Despite the Pirates of the Caribbean actor winning his defamation case, Ben Chew, one of the actor's attorneys carefully hinted while appearing on Good Morning America last month that the star will not collect his multimillion-dollar win from Heard as restoration of his reputation is enough for the actor.
"We obviously can't disclose attorney-client communications, but as Mr Depp testified ... this was never about money for Mr Depp," Chew said. "This was about restoring his reputation - and he's done that.
"It was a total win for Johnny," he said.