After the long defamation trial with her ex-lover Johnny Depp, Amber Heard is finally speaking out following the verdict, which wasn’t in her favor.
On June 1st, the Depp vs Heard Trial came to a close as a Virginia jury ruled in the favor of Depp's three claims that Heard defamed him in an op-ed to The Washington Post, where Heard referred to herself as a survivor of domestic abuse. Depp was also awarded $15 million by the jury in his suit against the actress.
The highly publicized case made a major stir on social media, with many picking a side. The case being so public even had fans of the Aquaman franchise calling to recast Heard's role as Mera, with a petition to remove Heard accumulating thousands of signatures. Heard did her first sit-down interview since the verdict with NBC News' Savannah Guthrie. In the first look at the interview, Heard makes it clear she has no ill will or blame towards the courts' jury for their decision. The preview clip that was shown also features Heard speaking out about how she was affected by the social media coverage of the trial.
“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,” she said. “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 clip continues as Guthrie recalls the trial and how after reviewing the evidence Heard and her defense team presented, they didn’t believe her claims. “How could they make a judgment, how could they not come to that conclusion? They had sat in those seats and heard over three weeks of nonstop, relentless testimony from paid employees, and towards the end of the trial, ‘randos,’ as I say," Heard said in response. "I don’t blame (the jury), I actually understand. He’s a beloved character and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor.”
With this just being the first look into Heard's side of dealing with the fallout of the defamation trial, more will be revealed when the full interview between Heard and Guthrie airs Tuesday and Wednesday on Today. It will also be featured in a Dateline special Friday on NBC.
Source: NBC News