The Probate Lawyer Blog

While Johnny Depp is no stranger to the courtroom – having been involved in several different lawsuits in recent years – none have been as impactful or bitter as his ongoing feud with ex-wife Amber Heard.  Did Johnny Depp abuse Amber Heard, both physically and psychologically?  Or were the allegations faked by Heard, as Depp and his legal team still contend?

And can Depp recover from the blows to his career and his fortune from this and other lawsuits?

This is the first installment in our Fortune Fights series, based on the celebrity documentary television show, Fortune Fights, for which we serve as hosts, legal commentators and executive producers.  New episodes air on the REELZ network Thursday nights at 9 pm eastern, starting January 31st, with the premiere episode Johnny Depp: Fortune Fight.

Unless you’re under the age of 35 or a fan of electronic dance music, you may have never heard of the Swedish musician, super DJ, and music producer, Avicii, although you likely heard his most popular song, “Wake Me Up,” playing at one point or another.

Avicii, whose real name was Tim Bergling, reached almost absurd levels of fame, success, wealth and adoration.  Sadly, his success came a heavy cost of anxiety, depression, heavy alcoholism, and ultimately suicide.  He was only 28 when he died from self-inflicted wounds from broken glass on April 20, 2018.

The Grammy-nominated artist enjoyed great financial success, regularly earning tens of millions of dollars per year and landing on many of Forbes highest earning lists, especially during his peak from 2014 through 2016.  Celebrity Net Worth reported his net worth when he died to be around $50 million.  His Hollywood Hills mansion sold for $17.5 million earlier this year.  He signed lucrative endorsement deals with Volvo and Ralph Lauren.

Yet Avicii was never motivated by money.  He said during an interview in 2013, “I discovered when I started making money that I didn’t really need it.”  Instead, he turned towards charitable goals, saying,  “When you have such an excess of money you don’t need, the most sensible, most human and completely obvious thing is to give to people in need.”

These weren’t just words to the famous DJ.  In 2012, he embarked on a tour called “House for Hunger” and donated all of his income from the tour to the charity, Feeding America, to combat hunger.  He added another $1 million afterwards, along with an additional one million euros to a Swedish “hunger aid” charity a year later.  And these were just some of the publicly-reported gifts.