A juror in Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s libel battle has revealed they did not side with the actress as her testimony “didn’t come across as believable”.
Heard, 36, was found to have defamed Depp, 59, in a 2018 Washington Post article when she claimed to be a survivor of domestic and sexual abuse, and she now owes the actor more than $8 million (£6.5 million) in damages.
Discussing their view of her evidence, the juror told Good Morning America that Heard “seemed like she was able to flip the switch on her emotions” and accused her of shedding “crocodile tears”. They said: “She would answer one question and she would be crying and two seconds later she would turn ice-cold. It didn’t seem natural.”
The juror, who remains anonymous, said Depp “seemed a little more real”, criticised Heard’s legal team for “cutting off” witnesses, and highlighted the “fiasco” of Heard’s claims that she donated her $7 million (£5.7 million) divorce settlement to charity.
They were speaking ahead of the Aquaman star’s first interview which is due to air on NBC’s Dateline tonight.
Heard lost the US case against Depp but a British judge in 2020 ruled that her claims of domestic abuse were “substantially true”.
In the TV interview, she repeats her allegations and has produced her doctor’s notes dating back to 2011 to support her assertions.
It is said the notes contain a January 2012 record of Heard reporting that Depp “hit her, threw her on the floor”, a further act of violence eight months later, and a 2013 allegations that he “threw her against a wall and threatened to kill her”.
The notes were excluded from the US trial as hearsay, but Heard says they “represented years, years of real-time explanations of what was going on”.
She denied instigating violence in their marriage, insisting she only “responded to it”, and told the interviewer: “I got hit for a very long time before I even knew how to defend myself.”
Heard also claimed to still love Depp, suggested she has “no bad feelings or ill will towards him”, and accepted she does not come across as the “perfect victim”.
Responding to teaser trailers of the interview, Depp’s representatives accused Heard of “reimagining” their relationship.
“It’s unfortunate that while Johnny is looking to move forward with his life, the defendant and her team are back to repeating, reimagining and re-litigating matters that have already been decided by the court and a verdict that was unequivocally decided by a jury in Johnny’s favour”, they said.
