Johnny Depp Dating Lawyer Joelle Rich from His U.K. Libel Trial 'but It's Not Serious': Source

Johnny Depp is dating one of the attorneys from his U.K. libel case, Joelle Rich, a source confirms to PEOPLE. "They are dating but it's not serious," the source says. Rich is a London lawyer who was on 59-year-old Depp's legal team during his libel case against The Sun, which he lost in November 2020. He sued the newspaper for calling him a "wife-beater," but the court upheld the outlet's claims as being "substantially true" and his ex-wife Amber Heard testified to back up the claims. In March 2021, his attempt to overturn the decision was overruled. Depp's new romantic interest was not among his lawyers in this year's defamation case against Heard, 36, that was in Fairfax County, Virginia. He won that case; a jury found that Heard defamed him in her 2018 Washington Post op-ed about domestic violence, though she didn't mention him by name. Depp was awarded more than $10 million in damages, and Heard, meanwhile, won one of her three defamation countersuit claims and was awarded $2 million. (They are both appealing the verdicts.) Though Rich was not on Depp's legal team this time, she did make several court appearances to show support. She was photographed with Depp outside of the courthouse on May 3, and she was pictured hugging Depp's attorney Camille Vasquez inside the courtroom on May 16.