Johnny Depp Loses ‘Wife Beater’ Libel Case Against Tabloid

A judge just dropped the hammer on Johnny Depp in his libel suit against the publisher of Britain's The Sun newspaper.

Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard had a volatile marriage, with each claiming the other was the reason for the violence. The British tabloid sided with her, calling Johnny a “wife beater,” and claiming he abused Heard more than a dozen times.

Judge Andrew Nicols, from the UK's High Court, found the newspaper's claims to be "substantially true."

He wrote, “I accept that she was the victim of sustained and multiple assaults by Mr. Depp in Australia… I accept her evidence of the nature of the assaults he committed against her. They must have been terrifying. I accept that Mr. Depp put her in fear of her life.”

Nicols later added, "I have reached these conclusions having examined in detail the 14 incidents on which the defendants rely, as well as the over-arching considerations which the claimant submitted I should take into account.”

The trial included several claims, one was that Johnny threw 30 bottles at Amber “like grenades” in a fight in Australia where he was shooting a “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. Heard also accused him of throwing a cell phone at her face in a separate incident.

The legal battle played out like a Hollywood drama during a three-week trial in London, and now Amber is the one feeling vindicated. She was spotted smiling in L.A. just before the verdict was announced.