Johnny Depp's nervous legal team played Monopoly to ease stress while waiting for defamation case verdict

Johnny Depp's nervous legal team played Monopoly to ease stress as they waited for a verdict in the blockbuster defamation trial between the actor and his ex-wife Amber Heard.

One of the Pirates of the Caribbean star's lawyers Benjamin Chew, 60, made the admission to Law and Crime Network when asked about his experience as they awaited a decision from the court.

He said: "We were so tense that one of my colleagues bought a Monopoly game, so we played Monopoly in our little breakout room and I saw a side of some of my young colleagues that I've never seen before.

"But the second we heard that the jury was coming in, of course we folded up the game and then it was just our hearts were in our mouths."

A jury ruled in favour of Depp's defamation claims made against Aquaman actress Heard, 36.

They awarded the actor $5 million (S$7 million) in punitive damages and $10 million in compensation for a 2018 op-ed that Heard wrote in the Washington Post, claiming that she was a survivor of domestic abuse.

Heard never explicitly named Depp in the op-ed but he claimed it painted him as an abuser, which he violently denied.

The jury also awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages after she filed a counter-lawsuit against her ex-husband for $100 million.