Amber Heard says she nonetheless loves ex-husband Johnny Depp.
“Completely,” the Aquaman actress mentioned partly two of her interview with Immediately‘s Savannah Guthrie on Wednesday. “I like him. I cherished him with all my coronary heart. And I attempted the perfect I might to make a deeply damaged relationship work. And I could not. No unhealthy emotions or unwell will in the direction of him in any respect. I do know that could be onerous to know or it could be very easy to know, in the event you’ve ever cherished anybody it ought to be simple.”
These phrases might come as a shock within the wake of allegations exchanged in the course of the couple’s defamation trial. She accused “monster” Depp of home violence and sexual assault. The Pirates of the Caribbean actor vehemently denied that, claiming she was abusive towards him throughout their four-year relationship.
On June 1, a Fairfax, Va., jury discovered that Heard defamed Depp, from whom she filed for divorce in 2016, in her 2018 Washington Put up op-ed about surviving home abuse — regardless of not naming him immediately within the article. Depp, who mentioned his profession was ruined by the story, was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages (the latter lowered to $350,000 per state tips). The jury awarded Heard, who countersued, $2 million in compensatory damages stemming from her lawyer calling her abuse allegations a hoax.
Guthrie — who beforehand disclosed that her husband, Michael Feldman, did consulting work for Depp’s authorized workforce — continued to grill Heard within the second a part of the interview. In the course of the dialog, Heard mentioned she is aware of she’s not a “excellent sufferer” and admitted she’s “scared” Depp will sue her once more for talking out.
“I took with no consideration what I assumed was my proper to talk,” Heard mentioned. “I am scared that it doesn’t matter what I do, it doesn’t matter what I say, or how I say it, each step that I take will current one other alternative for this kind of silencing, which is what, I suppose, a defamation lawsuit is supposed to do. It’s meant to … take your voice.”
Heard insisted the “op-ed wasn’t about my relationship with Johnny. What the op-ed was about was … me loaning my voice to an even bigger cultural dialog that we had been having on the time,” amid the #MeToo motion. “I clearly knew it was necessary for me to not make it about him. Or to do something like defame him,” which is why she had “groups of legal professionals” evaluation “all of the drafts” previous to publication.
She denied that her purpose was to have Depp canceled — as many different high-profile males of that period had been — saying, “After all not. After all not. It wasn’t about him.”
Guthrie introduced up a textual content message Depp despatched vowing “whole world humiliation” for Heard after their break up and requested if she felt “that got here true?”
“I do know he promised it,” she replied. “I am not an excellent sufferer, I get it. I am not a likable sufferer. I am not an ideal sufferer. However once I testified I requested the jury to simply see me as human and listen to his personal phrases which is a promise to do that. It feels as if he has.”
Heard mentioned she initially did not need Depp’s alleged abuse “to be recognized” publicly — or to “get him in bother” — so she did not initially cooperate with police. Nevertheless, when she did search the restraining order in opposition to Depp days later in 2016, she did so as a result of, “I made the choice to face up for myself and defend myself.”
She additionally denied, once more, staging the photo-op with an alleged Depp bruise when she bought the restraining order, which a former TMZ reporter testified about in the course of the trial.
“He actually did not get tipped off by me or anybody [I know],” she mentioned. “It had nothing to do with me.”
Concerning the bruises, which she has been accused of faking with make-up, she mentioned, “Once more, it is that factor: You probably have bruising, in case you have accidents, it is faux. If you happen to do not any, you then weren’t injured.”
Guthrie additionally requested about Heard claiming she donated the $7 million she obtained in her Depp divorce settlement to charity, when she simply pledged it, and whether or not she thought that damage her credibility with the jury who possibly thought she had been “caught in a lie.”
“I do not know as a result of a lot of the trial was meant to forged dispersions on who I’m as a human, my creditability, to name me a liar in each manner you’ll be able to…” Heard mentioned, earlier than Guthrie jumped in, saying, “That was the trial. It was a credibility contest.”
Heard mentioned she should not have had donate all of it within the first place “in an effort to be believed” that she’s a sufferer of abuse. Guthrie replied, “You should not have, however when you mentioned you probably did…”
It was famous Heard nonetheless plans to honor her pledge, splitting the $7 million between two charities: ACLU and Kids’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA), however no timetable was given.
As for what’s subsequent for Heard — who was slammed on social media in the course of the U.S. trial with Depp getting a great deal of assist — she mentioned, “I get to be a mother full-time, the place I’m not having to juggle calls with legal professionals,” she mentioned of Oonagh Paige Heard, 1.
What’s going to she in the future inform the kid about this period of her life? “I believe it doesn’t matter what, it should imply one thing,” she answered, “I did the fitting factor. I did every part I might to face up for myself and the reality.”
Depp was looking for $50 million in his Virginia defamation lawsuit in opposition to Heard whereas she countersued for $100 million. Previous to the U.S. trial, which captivated the nation, the Excessive Courtroom of London dominated in opposition to Depp in a separate defamation case stemming from Depp suing The Solar for reporting on the abuse allegations. It was dominated in 2020 that isn’t libelous to name Depp a “spouse beater” in an article as a result of the “nice majority of alleged assaults of Ms. Heard by Mr. Depp,” 12 of 14 incidents, “have been proved to the civil customary.”
On Tuesday, it was reported that Heard had been lower from Aquaman 2, however her rep known as the report “inaccurate and barely insane.”
Extra of Heard’s interview with NBC Information will air in a particular Dateline on Friday at 8 p.m. ET.
