In 2016, Amber Heard was praised after she publicly vowed to donate her $7 million divorce settlement from Johnny Depp to charity: $3.5 million to the ACLU, and another $3.5 million to the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. But with information revealed in an investigation by Rolling Stone and the currently unfolding court battle between Heard and her ex-husband, complications have surfaced. By 2017, Heard had only donated $350,000 of the pledged sum, and to this date, according to court testimony, there is no record of any other payments directly on her behalf. Things became even more confusing when the investigation dug into the involvement of Heard’s ex-boyfriend, tech billionaire Elon Musk.
What’s even more bizarre is the ACLU’s place in the growing scandal, as they seem to be covering and conspiring with Heard as Depp’s defamation lawsuit against her presses on. The venerated nonprofit suggested to The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 that Heard had donated the full $3.5 million with its director of artist engagement, Jessica Herman Weitz, saying, “I don’t think anyone would have looked differently at her if she kept the settlement money that was due to her, but she knew that money could do more for others than it could for her. What that money was able to do to help protect women and other gender-based violence victims will go a long way to make a difference for the people that we serve. That was my first interaction with her, which is pretty bold. It was not, ‘I’ll throw you a tweet.’ It was, ‘I’m putting my money where my mouth is.’”
