Amber Heard said she will stand by her evidence “to my dying day” during her first TV interview since losing a multi-million dollar defamation case brought by her former partner Johnny Depp. The actress, 36, told NBC Today journalist Savannah Guthrie that she had been affected emotionally by the trial and, asked whether she stood by her evidence, she said: “Of course, to my dying day I will stand by every word of my testimony.”
She added: “This was the most humiliating and horrible thing I have ever been through. I have never felt more removed from my own humanity. I felt less than human.”
During the interview, Guthrie suggested some of public were “frankly disgusted” by what played out in court between the couple, to which Heard replied: “Absolutely, I would not blame the average person for looking at this and how this has been covered and not thinking that this is Hollywood brats at their worst.
“But what people don’t understand is that it is actually so much bigger than that. This is not only about our first amendment right to speak.”
Guthrie interjected saying: “But here’s the thing, the first amendment protects free speech. It doesn’t protect lies that amount to defamation and that was the issue in the case.”
Following six weeks of evidence at a court in Fairfax County, Virginia, a jury found a 2018 article Heard wrote for the Washington Post about her experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse to be defamatory. Depp was awarded 10.35 million dollars (£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 two million dollars (£1.5 million) in damages.
As deliberations began, Depp appeared on stage with veteran rock guitarist Jeff Beck, 77, during his UK tour and the pair also recently announced a collaborative album. Depp 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”.
Heard’s interview airs on Tuesday and Wednesday’s editions on NBC News’ Today programme, with more airing on Friday during a special Dateline show.
