Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have new outlooks on life one year after their brutal defamation trial came to a close.
In the new issue of PEOPLE, sources reveal that the exes are both optimistic now that their six-week court battle, which exposed shocking details of their five-year relationship and threatened to end their careers, is far behind them.
After the Fairfax County, Va., jury largely ruled in Depp’s favor— finding that Heard, 37, defamed the 60-year-old when she wrote a 2018 Washington Post op-ed alleging she was a “public figure representing domestic abuse” — the three-time Oscar nominee declared he had his “life back.”
A Depp source says he “closed the chapter” on the legal battle in the months after the verdict, heading to Europe to play shows with guitarist Jeff Beck (who died in January) and film the French historical drama Jeanne du Barry, which debuted to great fanfare at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
“He feels incredibly lucky to do what he loves,” says a Depp source.
Meanwhile Heard paid her ex $1 million in damages — a settlement negotiated down from more than $10 million — last month, a Depp source confirmed. (Depp is donating the money to five charities).
She sold her home in Yucca Valley, Calif., last year for $1.1 million and traded the spotlight for a quieter life in Spain with her 2-year-old daughter, Oonah Paige, whom she welcomed in 2021 as a single parent.
During the trial, Heard had received death threats and became the subject of cruel Internet memes. “She just had to get out of the U.S.,” a source says of Heard. “It felt like too much chaos.”
After moving to Madrid, where she’s settled into a life with her toddler (whose father she has never revealed), “has new energy and is focused on things that she loves,” according to a Heard source.
One of those things is In the Fire, her new movie about an 19th-century American psychiatrist who treats a Colombian boy some think may be possessed by the devil, which premiered at the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily last month.
“It’s a beautiful movie about the almost supernatural effect and force of love,” Heard told PEOPLE at the premiere. “I don’t want to sound cheesy about it, but it’s a movie about love.”
Heard will return as Mera in the superhero sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, due out in December. Both films were shot before the trial and though she has not booked another role since, “she is hopeful she will get projects,” says a Heard source, who says she was stressed even after the trial. “She is doing much better now.”
In the Fire director Allyn believes she will: “Amber has an incredibly bright future ahead,” he says.
Heard’s appearance at the Taormina Film Festival comes a month after Depp made his own red carpet appearance at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where Jeanne du Barry premiered on the opening night.
During a press conference at Cannes, the actor was asked whether he feels boycotted by Hollywood after his highly publicized legal battles.
“Do I feel boycotted now? No, not at all,” said Depp. “But I don’t feel boycotted by Hollywood because I don’t think about it. I don’t think about Hollywood. I don’t have much further need for Hollywood myself.”
He later added, “I keep wondering about the word comeback because I didn’t go anywhere. As a matter of fact, I live about 45 minutes away. So yeah, maybe people stopped calling out of whatever their fear was at the time. But no, I didn’t go nowhere. I’ve been sitting around.”
After Depp’s Cannes appearance, one source said the actor is “doing fantastic” these days.
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