Depp tried and lost basically the same thing against The Sun in the UK, a country with laws much more favorable to people claiming they've been defamed.

In that trial, the UK court found that the Sun's claims were "substantially true" based on the evidence (those claims being that he was a 'wife beater'). Depp appealed but it was denied after review by two separate judges. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out the odds of him winning this one...

What?

in the UK he had to prove the sun knowingly lied. They were reporting Amber Heard's accusations.

He couldn't prove that he never hit her (not saying he did but how do you actually prove that you never hit unless you film yourself 24/7?) so he lost.