Amber Heard has broken her silence on the verdict of her defamation trial against her ex-husband Johnny Depp.
On June 1st, a jury of five men and two women found the actress guilty of defaming her ex-husband in an op-ed for the Washington Post, which was published in December 2018.
The jury also awarded the actor $10 million in compensatory damages, and $5 million in punitive damages.
However, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate reduced the punitive damages to $350,000, which is the State of Virginia’s legal limit, resulting in total damages of $10.4 million awarded to Johnny.
Almost two weeks after the verdict was read out in court, Amber has sat down for her first TV interview about the trial.
The 36-year-old filmed a three-part interview with the Today show, which was pre-recorded on Thursday, and began airing on Monday morning in the US.
During a sit-down chat with Savannah Guthrie, Amber called out the “hate and vitriol” she’s received on social media since the trial kicked off in April.
The actress said: “Even somebody who is sure I’m deserving of all this hate and vitriol, even if you think that I’m lying, you still couldn’t look me in the eye that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation.”
“You cannot tell me that you think that this has been fair.”
Amber also said she’s not surprised the jury was won over by Johnny, who she described as a “beloved character”.
“I’ll put it this way, how could they make a judgment, how could they not come to that conclusion [that I couldn’t be believed]?” she said.
“They had said in those seats and heard over three weeks of nonstop, relentless testimony from paid employees and towards the end of the trial, randos, as I say.”
“I don’t blame them, I don’t blame them, I actually understand, he’s a beloved character and people feel that they know him. He’s a fantastic actor.”
“Again, how could they after listening to three and a half weeks of testimony about how I was an uncredible person and not to believe a word that came out of my mouth.”
In a clip from her interview, the 36-year-old insisted: “I don’t care what anyone thinks about me or what judgments you want to make about what happened in the privacy of my own home in my marriage behind closed doors.”
“I don’t presume the average person should know those things so I don’t take it personally.”
Amber’s full interview will air on NBC’s Dateline in the US this Friday.
Johnny, 58, launched a $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife in 2019, after she wrote about being an alleged victim of domestic violence in an op-ed for the Washington Post in December 2018.
While his name was excluded from the piece, Johnny’s legal team have argued that the op-ed implied that he “perpetrated domestic violence against her.”
In response, Amber countersued Johnny, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.
In her countersuit, the actress claimed she was defamed by statements made by Depp’s former lawyer, Adam Waldman, who told the Daily Mail her abuse claims were a “hoax”.
Regarding her countersuit, the jury awarded $2 million in compensatory damages to Amber, but $0 in punitive damages.
During the six-week long trial, Amber detailed multiple incidents of alleged abuse, and told the court that “violence became normal” towards the end of their relationship.
However, Johnny testified that he never hit his ex-wife, and claimed that she was the abuser in their relationship.
In court, the 58-year-old said the allegations he was a “drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat women” have cost him “everything”.
Johnny and Amber met in 2009 on the set of the film The Rum Diary, and were married in February 2015.
Their divorce was finalised two years later.
