In her first interview since losing her defamation case on June 1, Amber Heard said that Johnny Depp’s exes are afraid to openly accuse him of violence.
Heard, 36, told Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s Dateline that she was ‘terrified’ to give her side of the tale in an interview that was aired in its entirety for the first time on Friday.
Guthrie pointed out in the interview that Heard is the only woman who has accused Depp of sexual misconduct.
She wondered why no one else had spoken up if they had been subjected to the same brutal treatment she had.
‘Look what happened to me when I came forward,’ Heard responded. ‘Would you do it?’
Kate Moss testified during the slander trial to defend her ex-boyfriend, whom she dated from 1994 until 1998.
She dealt a stunning blow to Depp’s ex-wife Heard by refuting her claim that he allegedly pushed his supermodel ex down a flight of stairs.
During her evidence, Heard mentioned hearing rumors that Depp had shoved Moss down a flight of stairs; however, according to testimony Moss presented in support of Depp, the actor actually assisted her after she fell.
Heard made the accusation while talking about an alleged fight she had with Depp at the top of a stairwell, during which her sister, Whitney Heard, allegedly stepped in between them.
‘She pushed herself in the line of fire,’ Heard testified in court. She was pleading with Johnny to come to a halt. Johnny strikes at her with her back to the stairwell.
I don’t pause to consider my options; instead, Kate Moss and stairwells come to mind. I swung at him as well.’
Depp never ‘pushed her or shoved her down any stairs,’ according to Moss, who claims that he tended to her after she slipped on a trip they went to Jamaica together.
Heard also said that she had been wounded by the ‘hate and vitriol’ directed at her, but did not regret bringing the case.
‘I know the scariest, most intimidating thing for anybody talking about sexual violence is not being believed, being called a liar, or being humiliated,’ she said.
Heard said she was not speaking out because she was ‘vindictive’.
‘This would be a really lousy way of getting vengeance,’ she said.
‘As silly as it is to say this out loud, my goal is – I just want people to see me as a human being.’
Heard’s interview raised eyebrows, with her repeating her defamatory allegations that he beat her.
Yet on Friday, shortly before the interview aired, Heard’s team insisted they were unrepentant.
‘If Mr Depp or his team have a problem with this, we recommend that Johnny himself sit down with Savannah Guthrie for an hour and answer all her questions,’ a spokesperson said, as Heard branded Depp, 59, a ‘liar’ and doubled down on claims that he beat her and sexually assaulted her during their relationship.
Heard also released a ‘binder full’ of notes from her therapist, which she claims is fresh evidence proving her allegations of physical and sexual abuse against her Depp – despite the notes already being dismissed by the judge.
Heard also said that she had been wounded by the ‘hate and vitriol’ directed at her, but did not regret bringing the case.
‘I know the scariest, most intimidating thing for anybody talking about sexual violence is not being believed, being called a liar, or being humiliated,’ she said.
Heard said she was not speaking out because she was ‘vindictive’.
‘This would be a really lousy way of getting vengeance,’ she said.
‘As silly as it is to say this out loud, my goal is – I just want people to see me as a human being.’
Heard’s interview raised eyebrows, with her repeating her defamatory allegations that he beat her.
Yet on Friday, shortly before the interview aired, Heard’s team insisted they were unrepentant.
‘If Mr Depp or his team have a problem with this, we recommend that Johnny himself sit down with Savannah Guthrie for an hour and answer all her questions,’ a spokesperson said, as Heard branded Depp, 59, a ‘liar’ and doubled down on claims that he beat her and sexually assaulted her during their relationship.
Despite the fact that the notes had already been dismissed by the judge, Heard published a ‘binder full’ of notes from her therapist, which she claims is new proof proving her allegations of physical and sexual abuse against Depp.
When Guthrie pressed her about witness testimony that she’saw Heard instigate violence’ against Depp during their relationship, the actress retorted that she ‘never had to instigate it’ and that she only ever’responded to it,’ claiming that she only became violent toward the actor ‘to cope with’ the abuse she claims he subjected her to.
‘When you’re living in violence and it becomes normal, as I testified to, you have to adapt, you adopt strategies to cope with it,’ she said.
‘If it meant, as I testified to, if it meant the difference between a broken nose or a sore cheek, I would do it.’
She added: ‘I got hit for a very long time before I even knew how to defend myself.’
‘It’s unfortunate that the defendant and her team are back to repeating, reimagining, and re-litigating matters that have already been decided by the Court and a verdict that was unanimously and unequivocally decided by a jury in Johnny’s favor,’ Depp’s legal team said in a statement to Dateline.
Heard, on the other hand, insists that she will’stand by her testimony to her dying day,’ referring to herself as a’survivor’ in the Washington Post op-ed that launched the protracted six-week trial.
‘I will [stand by my testimony] to my dying day. I know what happened to me. I’m here as a survivor,’ she said.
‘To my dying day I will stand by every word of my testimony.’
Heard now claims that she never wanted her abuse claims against Depp to be aired so ‘publicly’, insisting that she never wanted to go to trial, but that she ‘had no choice’ because her former spouse chose to sue her.
‘I didn’t want this to be a thing, I didn’t want it to be a trial, I didn’t want it to be a part of the public record,’ she said. ‘But when someone sues you, you don’t really have a choice.’
Despite her continued airing of her charges, Heard insists on moving on with her life, telling Guthrie: ‘I look forward to living my life, and I have a long one ahead of me, I hope.’ And I’m going to keep my chin up as I go through this.’
Despite calling Depp a “liar” who misled the jury with his “great acting,” Heard reveals in the interview that she “definitely still loves” him, as well as:
- Repeating her allegations that Depp physically abused her during their marriage, insisting that he ‘lied’ on the stand when he said that he had ‘never hit her’
- Admitting that she ‘still loves’ her ex-husband while describing their relationship as both ‘ugly’ and ‘beautiful’
- Accusing the jury of being swayed by ‘unfair social media representation’ and her ex-husband’s ‘fantastic acting’ on the stand, as well as his reputation as a ‘beloved’ Hollywood star
- Stating that Depp’s legal team put ‘paid employees and randos’ on the stand in order to ‘distract the jury from the real issues’
- Claiming that audio recordings of alleged abuse that were played during the trial were ‘edited’ and only gave the jury a minutes-long version of the hours-long tapes
- Hitting out at Depp’s glamorous lawyer Camille Vasquez for helping to convince the jury believe ‘a man who convinced the world he had scissors for fingers’
- Insisting that she will still honor her ‘pledge’ to donate $3.5 million from her $7 million divorce settlement to the ACLU – and claiming her being caught out in a lie about handing it over ‘shouldn’t’ have affected her case
- Blasting allegations that she ‘faked’ bruises – and claiming that a lack of visible injuries doesn’t mean she wasn’t ‘abused’ by Depp; denied ‘tipping off’ TMZ to court appearance for restraining order
- Admitting she ‘did and said horrible’ things during her ‘ugly and beautiful’ relationship with Depp – but insisting she ‘never instigated [violence]’ and only ever ‘responded to it’
