Actress Amber Heard insisted that her ex-husband actor Johnny Depp “hit” her in a recent interview on NBC’s Today, adding, “I stand by every word of my testimony.”
“He said he never hit you. Never. Is that a lie?” Savannah Guthrie asked, to which Heard responded, “Yes, it is.”
“To my dying day, will stand by every word of my testimony,” Heard added of her testimony accusing Depp of domestic abuse.
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After being asked to react to the audio recordings in which Heard admitted to starting “a physical fight,” and dared Depp to “tell the world” he’s a male victims of domestic violence and see how many people believe him, the actress said, “20-second clips are not representative of even the two hours or the three hours that those clips are excerpted from.”
“Could your side have just put the whole three hours in, then?” Guthrie asked, to which Heard replied, “I’m not a lawyer.”
During the interview, the Aquaman actress also claimed that social media commentary about the trial had an impact on the jury, declaring, “Even if you think that I’m lying,” you still can’t “look me in the eye and tell me that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation.”
“This was the most humiliating and horrible thing I’ve ever been through,” Heard added of the defamation trial. “I have never felt more removed from my own humanity. I felt less than human.”
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After Guthrie noted that some people who viewed the trial “don’t have much sympathy for either one of you,” Heard said she doesn’t blame “the average person” for thinking “that it is Hollywood brats at their worst.”
“But what people don’t understand is that it’s actually so much bigger than that,” Heard added, before doubling down on her previous claim that her loss in the defamation trial is about “our First Amendment right to speak.”
But after Guthrie pointed out that the First Amendment “doesn’t protect lies that amount to defamation,” Heard doubled down again, insisting that she only spoke “truth,” adding that she spoke “truth to power,” and “paid the price” for it.
In April, Depp sued Heard for $50 million, claiming that a 2018 Washington Post op-ed — in which she described as a victim of domestic abuse — has harmed his movie career. Heard countersued for $100 million.
The trial ended June 1, with a jury awarding Depp $10 million in compensatory damages, and $5 million in punitive damages on all three of his defamation claims. The punitive damages, however, were reduced to $350,000 to comply with Virginia law that caps punitive damages at that amount.
The jury also found for Heard on one of her two claims, awarding the actress $2 million, and leaving her owing Depp roughly $8.35 million in damages, which Heard’s own attorney Elaine Charlson Bredehoft has revealed she is “absolutely not” able to pay.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.