Amber Heard settles Johnny Depp defamation case 'having lost faith in the American legal system'

Amber Heard is no longer appealing the verdict in the Johnny Depp defamation trial and has reached a settlement with her ex-husband. 

The actress announced Monday on Instagram that she has dropped her appeal and reached a settlement after a Virginia jury found she defamed Depp, whom she accused of domestic abuse. Heard said she made the "very difficult decision to settle" after "I defended my truth" and "my life as I knew it was destroyed" in the process. 

Terms were not disclosed, but Heard said the settlement will not prevent her from speaking out further on the case. TMZ reported she will pay $1 million, though the money will come from her insurance company. 

"I have made no admission," Heard said. "This is not an act of concession. There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward."

Depp sued Heard for writing an op-ed about being a victim of domestic abuse. During a high-profile trial, both accused the other of being the abuser in their relationship. The jury ultimately found they were both defamed, ordering Heard to pay over $10 million and Depp to pay $2 million. Since then, Heard had been fighting an appeal of the verdict. 

But Heard said Monday that even if her appeal were successful, "the best outcome would be" another trial, and she wrote that she "cannot go through that for a third time" given the "humiliation" she experienced during the Virignia case. Depp and Heard also previously faced off in the U.K., where a judge found it was "substantially true" when a British tabloid called him a "wife beater."

Heard also said she reached the settlement "having lost faith in the American legal system, where my unprotected testimony served as entertainment and social media fodder."