Hollywood actor, Johnny Depp, has lost his suit against the publishers of The Sun for libel over a 2018 article which branded him a “wife-beater.”
During the trial in London this summer, Depp admitted he’d lost his £600 million movie fortune and had been left millions in debt.
Losing the case will be another huge blow for the star as he’s going to be facing astronomical legal fees racked up during his battle with Sun owners NGN.
The Guardian previously published a report estimating Depp has racked up around £5 million in legal fees just for work on this case.
If he’d won, Depp could have expected between £180,000 to £200,000 in damages
However, with the loss, it’s expected Depp will have to cover the bulk of NGN’s legal fees as well as his own, with the costs running into the millions.
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The actor’s spending has previously been reported to have crept into the millions amid claims he splurged on a yacht, private jet, and a private island, and splashed out a staggering $30,000 a month on wine.
He also shelled out a huge amount of money to have his close pal Hunter S Thompson’s ashes shot into space from a cannon.
“By the way, it not $3 million to shoot Hunter into the f**king sky,” he told Rolling Stone, “It was $5 million.”
Among his other alleged expenditures were an $18 million yacht, a failed record label into which he pumped $4 million, $30,000 a month on wine, $200,000 a month on private planes, $150,000 a month on security, and $300,000 a month to maintain 40 staff.
He had previously bought himself a private island in the Bahamas, where he wed Amber Heard in 2015.
During the libel trial this summer, Depp’s finances came up as he recounted a particularly gloomy meeting with his accounts in 2016 in which they told him he was millions in debt.
Depp told the court: “It was put to me this way. It was put to me since Pirates II and III I had made – and it seems a ludicrous number – $650 million.
“When I fired them for the right reasons I had not only lost the $650 million but I was $100 million in the hole because they had not paid the government my taxes for 17 years.
“It was a bad meeting.”
The judgement in the libel case was handed down today and Mr. Justice Nicol ruled in favour of NGN.
In his ruling, he said: “The claimant [Depp] has not succeeded in his action for libel…
“The defendants [The Sun and News Group Newspapers] have shown that what they published in the meaning which I have held the words to bear was substantially true.
“I have reached these conclusions having examined in detail the 14 incidents on which the defendants rely as well as the overarching considerations which the claimant submitted I should take into account. In those circumstances, parliament has said that a defendant has a complete defence.”
