Nearly two years after her highly publicized defamation trial with ex-husband, is living her life in Spain with 3-year-old daughter Oonagh.
“Amber doesn’t want to raise a child in Hollywood,” a source exclusively reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly, adding that Heard, 38, “never liked the energy” of Los Angeles. “She [thinks] Madrid is a more welcoming place for her. She feels safe and secure, and she’s surrounded by better people where she is.”
Heard, who moved to Spain shortly after the trial, has been doing some modeling and working on a variety of projects, but still plans to pursue acting, the insider shares. Last June, Heard attended the Taormina Film Festival in Italy to promote her film In the Fire. She also briefly appeared in Aquaman 2, which hit theaters in December 2023.
“Amber’s not giving up acting,” the source says. “It’s her passion.”
Heard, who quietly welcomed Oonagh via surrogate in 2021, was married to Depp, 60, from 2015 to 2017. Depp initially sued Heard for defamation in 2019 over a Washington Post op-ed written by Heard the year prior in which she referred to herself as a domestic abuse survivor. The exes both took the stand when the case went to trial in April 2022.
The jury sided with Depp in June 2022, awarding him $15 million in damages. Heard appealed the decision, but the exes settled the case in December 2022.
“After a great deal of deliberation I have made a very difficult decision to settle the defamation case brought against me by my ex-husband in Virginia,” Heard wrote via Instagram at the time. “It’s important for me to say that I never chose this. I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed.”
Heard added,“The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimized when they come forward.” She claimed that she’d “lost faith in the American legal system,” arguing that her “unprotected testimony served as entertainment and social media fodder.”
After the trial, Heard felt like she “just needed to get away,” a second source told Us in June 2023.
“The trial was watercolor conversation and the energy around it was so intense,” the insider explained. “[Amber] felt like people were always talking about her.
The source also noted that Heard has been “so much happier” since moving to Europe and getting “away from all the noise.”
Heard shared a photo of herself last month smiling and enjoying a glass of bubbly to commemorate her 38th birthday.
“Champagne kind of birthday 💕,” she captioned the Instagram snap.
For more on what Heard is doing now, watch the video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.
