Amber Heard has spoken out in her first interview since she lost a high-profile defamation battle against her ex-husband Johnny Depp. Speaking to NBC Today journalist Savannah Guthriehe, the actress, 36, detailed the “hate and vitriol” she faced online during the trial.
The full interview will air this week on Today and on Friday on the Dateline programme. In a preview published online, Heard said of the jury: “I don’t blame them. I actually understand. He’s a beloved character and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor.”
Responding, Guthrie said: “Their job is to not be dazzled by that. Their job is to look at the facts and evidence and they did not believe your testimony or your evidence.” Heard added: “Again, how could they after listening to three and a half weeks of testimony about how I was a non-credible person, how not to believe a word that came out of my mouth?”
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Speaking about the messages she has received online, she said: “I don’t care what one 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. And so I don’t take it personally."
“But 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 and tell me that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation," she said. “You cannot tell me that you think that this has been fair.”
Deadline reported the interview was filmed on Thursday June 9 in New York under tight security and secrecy. Heard’s interview will air first on Tuesday and Wednesday’s editions on NBC News’ Today programme, with more of the sit-down airing on Friday during a special Dateline show. The interview will also be available on Today.com following the broadcast.
At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found that the 2018 article Heard wrote for the Washington Post about her experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse was defamatory and Depp was awarded £8.2 million in damages. Heard won on one count of her counter-suit, successfully arguing that Depp’s press agent defamed her by claiming her allegations were “an abuse hoax” aimed at capitalising on the #MeToo movement. The jury awarded her £1.5 million in damages.
Mr Depp had previously lost a similar trial in the UK which he brought against the publisher of The Sun newspaper after an article, also written in 2018, which referred to him as a “wife-beater”. The Hollywood star has recently been appearing on stage with veteran rock guitarist Jeff Beck, 77, including in Manchester, for the musician's UK tour. The pair also recently announced a collaborative album.
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