Amber Heard to pay Johnny Depp $1M in defamation settlement

Amber Heard has agreed to pay her ex-husband Johnny Depp $1 million to settle his defamation claim against her — appearing to put an end to the warring pair’s high-profile legal battle.

The 36-year-old actress announced the “very difficult decision” to reach a settlement in a statement on Instagram Monday, saying she withdrew her appeal of the verdict against her because she could not bear the “humiliation” of a retrial.

“It is important for me to say I never chose this,” Heard wrote. “I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed.”

The payment — just a sliver of the more than $10 million in damages she was ordered to pay Depp — will reportedly come from her insurance company, not from her own personal funds.

Heard said the seven-figure settlement — reported by TMZ — was not an admission of guilt in connection with wild allegations leveled by Depp, 59, in a sensational six-week televised trial earlier this year.

A Fairfax, Virginia, jury found in June that Heard had defamed Depp by writing a Washington Post op-ed in which she said she was a survivor of domestic abuse. Heard did not mention Depp by name in the piece.

The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star sued Heard for $50 million and maintained that he was the abuse victim in their relationship, as he accused his ex-wife of defecating in their bed and causing him to lose part of his finger in a drunken fight.

Heard, who was also awarded $2 million after the jury found she was defamed by one of Depp’s lawyers, continued to deny defaming the actor, and said Monday that her plight was a step backwards for abuse victims.

“I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed. The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways women are re-victimised [sic] when they come forward,” the “Aquaman” actress wrote.

“Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I tried to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to,” the lengthy statement continued.

“This is not an act of concession. There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.”

The salacious trial came two years after Depp lost a libel case against the Sun in the UK, after Heard gave the newspaper evidence to back up claims he had beaten her.

Heard said that trial was “robust, impartial and fair” but claimed that “popularity and power mattered more than reason and due process” in the US courtroom.

“I will not be threatened, disheartened or dissuaded by what happened from speaking the truth,” her statement said. “No one can and no one will take that from me. My voice forever remains the most valuable asset I have.”