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Amber Heard has spoken up about her recent court battle against former partner Johnny Depp. In an interview with NBC and Savannah Guthrie, the 36-year-old has explained that she doesn’t blame the jury for their decision, and went into detail how the court case became less about facts and more about fans.
On the first of June, Depp succeeded in his defamation case against Heard after a jury found in his favour that an article written by his former wife about domestic violence and abuse was clearly referring to the actor despite not naming him in the piece. While the jury unanimously found that Heard defamed Depp and awarded him US$5 million in punitive damages and US$10 million in compensatory damages, they also awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages for her counterclaim against Depp.
Her first interview since losing the case, Heard explains to Guthrie that she does not believe depictions or descriptions of her in the media have been fair. Heard has explained how, since the trial began, she had been on the receiving end of death threats from Depp fans but as it progressed, the (controversially) televised case became a source of parody on social media, mostly targetting Heard and her legal team.
“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,” Heard explains to Guthrie.
The fact that the lawsuit was televised was bad enough – a domestic abuse case shouldn’t be entertainment – however the anti-Heard vehemence that arose on social media platforms became a cause of concern, both during and after the trial. Multiple content creators have spoken out about the hostile and toxic environment that was being created online by Depp’s “fans”.
For their part, Depp’s lawyers say that social media played no role in the decision of the jury despite trending hashtags like #JusticeForJohnny dominating Twitter.
