On Monday, Amber Heard broke her silence on the verdict of the 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.
In the second part of the interview with Savannah Guthrie, Amber said she would stand by “every word” of her testimony until her “dying day.”
The Aquaman actress explained how she believed the “vast majority of this trial was played out on social media,” and that it had “gone haywire” adding that a jury is “not immune to that.”
When pressed as to whether she believed that social media had swayed the jury, Amber said: “I think even to the most well-intentioned juror, it would have been impossible to avoid this.”
The 36-year-old recalled passing people with signs that read “burn the witch” and “death to Amber” on her way to and from the trial every day, and a courtroom “packed full of Captain Jack Sparrow fans.”
“This was the most humiliating and horrible thing I’ve ever been through,” she said. “I have never felt more removed from my own humanity – I felt less than human.”
She continued: “Even if you think that I’m lying, you still couldn’t tell me – look me in the eye and tell me that you think on social media there has been a fair representation.”
Amber also argued that “really important pieces of evidence” were kept out of the trial.
During their chat, Savannah reminded Amber of Johnny’s lawyer Camille Vasquez’s closing argument that Amber had given the “performance” of her life.
To this, Amber said: “I had listened to weeks of testimony insinuating that, or saying quite directly that, I’m a terrible actress. So, I’m a bit confused about how I could be both.”
The interviewer then questioned Amber about the voice recording evidence used in court, to which Amber testified that she never instigated a fight with Johnny.
“I responded to it. When you’re living in violence and it becomes normal… you have to adapt,” she said.
“When you’re in an abusive dynamic, psychologically, emotionally, and physically, you don’t have the resources that say you or I do with the luxury of saying ‘Hey, this is black and white’ cause it’s anything but when you’re living in it,'” Amber said.
On the topic of whether Johnny’s witnesses lied under oath, Amber said she wasn’t at the interview to criticise them, but to set the record straight about her side of the story.
However, she admitted: “I’ve seen first hand how people will file rank and support the person they depend on.”
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.
