Amber Heard has said that she still loves her ex-husband Johnny Depp despite her concern that he would suit her once more.
Heard wrote about her experience with domestic violence in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed, although Depp was not specifically referenced. Depp then sued Heard for $50 million, claiming she had defamed him.
Although the jury held both of them responsible for defamation and awarded Depp $8.5 million in damages, she countersued him for $100 million.
The entire interview, which Heard, 36, conducted with Savannah Guthrie for the Today show on Thursday and was partially shown on Wednesday morning, June 15, will run on Dateline on Friday.
It is Heard’s first interview following the public defamation trial she and Depp were involved in.
When Gutherie asked the actress if, despite everything, she “still has love” for Depp, as she claimed in court during their defamation case, she responded, “Yeah, totally.”
I cherish him. Heard declared, “I loved him with all my heart.
And while I did my utmost to repair a seriously damaged relationship, I was unsuccessful.
She continued, “I have absolutely no animosity or ill will toward him.
If you’ve only ever loved one person, you could find that difficult to understand, while others may find it very simple.
Heard discussed the hateful comments hurled towards her Depp followers in part one of the interview, which aired on Tuesday, June 14. She claimed that “the great majority of this trial was played out on social media.”
After Gutherie questioned Heard about a text in which Depp threatened “complete global disgrace” for her, she elaborated more on how the general public views her during the episode on Wednesday.
I understand that I’m not a good victim, she said. I’m not a sympathetic victim or a flawless victim. However, I pleaded with the jury during my testimony to see me and hear his own words, which is a vow to do this.
Heard admitted to Guthrie that she “took for granted what I assumed was my right to speak” and that she is now afraid to speak up.
Guthrie asked Heard if she was concerned that Depp may suit her again in the future, and Heard replied, “I’m frightened that no matter what I do, no matter what I say or how I say it, every step that I take will create another potential for this sort of silencing.”
When grilled by Guthrie about audio clips that were played during the six-week trial in which the actress could be heard admitting to being physically abusive towards Depp, Heard insisted that she only ever ‘responded to [physical violence]’ but that she ‘never instigated it’.
‘I never had to instigate it, I responded to it,’ she claimed. ‘When you’re living in violence and it becomes normal – as I testified to – you have to adapt.’
Heard added that, while she ‘has so much regret’ over the ‘horrible’ and ‘ugly’ things she did and said to Depp, she was only acting as a ‘person in extreme emotional, psychological, and physical distress’ who felt that their ‘life was at risk’.
I’m sure these audio tapes have been used extensively, she admitted. They were initially modified and leaked online. What you would hear in these clips was evidence of a negotiation, or how to talk about that with your abuser, not proof of what was happening.
“As I testified about it on the stand,” she continued. When your life is in danger, you won’t just accept responsibility for mistakes you shouldn’t, but you also won’t have the resources or luxury to say, “Hey, this is black and white,” because you are experiencing psychological, mental, and physical abuse.
‘Because it is anything but when you are living in it.’ As for the “Aquaman” star’s future, she said her major focus will now be to her one-year-old daughter.
