One of the first people to congratulate Johnny Depp for winning his defamation trial was Avengers star Robert Downey Jr. Johnny’s close friend, actor Josh Richman, revealed the conversation between Depp, 59, and Downer Jr., 57, during a charity live stream event for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, according to the New York Post. John, thank God it’s over,” Robert reportedly told his friend over FaceTime. A rep for Johnny confirmed to The Post that the two did Facetime once the jury found his ex-wife, Amber Heard, had defamed him in her 2018 Washington Post op-ed.
Richman said that Johnny was “stoic” while watching the verdict read aloud on television. His friends and staff reportedly cried and screamed around him. Jeff Beck, who Johnny would join on stage at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall in Scotland that night, flipped off the television screen. Johnny’s friend also said that Depp had no intention of asking his ex-girlfriend, Kate Moss, to testify at the trial.
The notoriously private Moss, 48, was “pissed” after Amber Heard, 36, mentioned the model during her testimony. Kate was “like, f-ck this,'” said Richman. “Her [Moss] goddaughter was like did Johnny Depp push you down the stairs? She was like ‘no.'” Kate did reunite with Johnny backstage at his May 31 concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Security escorted her out of the venue after spending some time with Johnny. The two dated from 1994 to 1997 before amicably going their separate ways.
Though Amber did not mention Johnny by name in her 2018 op-ed, he claimed that she cost him work and sued for defamation. She countersued him. The jury found that Amber had defamed Johnny with malice and awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages (though that latter amount was reduced to $350,000 by Virginia law.) The jury also ruled that Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, had defamed Amber in statements he provided to the Daily Mail and awarded her $2 million in compensatory damages.
“To my dying day, [I] will stand by every word of my testimony,” Amber said in her Today interview with Savannah Guthrie (whose husband, PEOPLE notes, worked as a consultant for Depp’s legal team in the trial.) “[Truth] ‘s all I spoke,” said Amber, “and I spoke it to power, and I paid the price.”