Watch: Amber Heard breaks her silence
Amber Heard has said she does not believe her defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp was ‘fair’, but doesn’t blame the jury for their verdict.
Last month, a jury in Virginia ruled that she had defamed Depp after penning an op-ed for The Washington Post in which she detailed being the victim of domestic abuse.
In her first interview since the end of the trial, Heard spoke to Samantha Guthrie for NBC’s Today.
In a preview of the interview which will air on 14 and 15 June, Heard says she doesn’t blame the jury for reaching their verdict.
She says: “I don’t blame them. I actually understand. He’s a beloved character and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor.”
Read more: Me Too movement will ‘not be derailed by Johnny Depp verdict
Heard also discusses the online backlash to her and the large amount of negative comments targeted at her on social media. She says: “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.”
The Aquaman star added: “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. You cannot tell me that you think that this has been fair.”
The court ruled that Heard had to pay Depp $10m in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages.
Last year, Depp lost a similar trial in the UK after he sued The Sun for calling him a ‘wifebeater’. A judge in that case ruled that the claims that Depp was a ‘wifebeater’ were ‘substantially true’.
Depp originally sued Heard for $50m as a result of the article which does not actually name the Pirates of the Caribbean actor.
Depp’s attorneys successfully argued that the op-ed referred to allegations previously made during their acrimonious 2016 divorce.
Jurors also found Depp liable for defamation after his former lawyer Adam Waldman claimed that Heard’s allegations of abuse were a “hoax”.
He was ordered to pay $2m in compensatory damages.
Heard previously announced she plans on appealing the court’s verdict.
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