Amber Heard talks post-trial plans and harboring no "bad feelings or ill will" for Johnny Depp

Heard says she did not set out to "cancel" her ex-husband with notorious op-ed

By Mary Kate Carr  |  June 15, 2022 | 1:37pm
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Amber Heard talks post-trial plans and harboring no
Amber Heard, Johnny Depp Photo: Steve Helber

There is still no end in sight for the ongoing ugliness of Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard. Heard’s lawyer has indicated she plans to appeal the verdict, and the Pandora’s box of very familiar misogyny unleashed on the Internet can’t be closed.

Arguments can be made as to the moment when that box was cracked open and the worst kind of media firestorm was let loose. But as for the recent defamation trial, the point of no return was Heard’s Washington Post op-ed, which Depp argued cost him professional opportunities. Asked in the second part of her Today interview whether she intended to “cancel” her ex-husband with the piece, Heard replied, “Of course not. It wasn’t about him.”

Famously (or infamously), the op-ed didn’t mention Depp by name, but because the public was aware that he was the implied abuser she referenced, he was able to successfully sue. But despite his taking her to court–and the alleged coordinated smear campaign against her–Heard had kind words to say about her ex.

“I love him. I loved him with all my heart. And I tried the best I could to make a deeply broken relationship work. I couldn’t,” she told Today. “No bad feelings or ill will towards him at all. I know that might be hard to understand or it might be really easy to understand, if you’ve ever loved anyone it should be easy.”

Heard has reiterated over the years that she hid the alleged abuse perpetrated by Depp in order to protect him. Speaking with Savannah Guthrie, she said again, “Why didn’t I cooperate with the police? As I have testified before, and I will stand by until my dying day, I didn’t want to cooperate with them. I didn’t want this to be out. I didn’t want this to be known. … I didn’t want to get him in trouble. If it was a hoax I could have done that.”

She did, however, acknowledge her role in the news coming to light shortly afterwards: “Five days later I made a decision to stand up for myself and protect myself. You can’t get a restraining order in private, which of course I didn’t understand the night when the cops were called.”

As for her future following the trial, Heard envisioned: “I get to be a mom, like, full-time, you know where I’m not having to juggle calls with lawyers.”

But she admitted that Depp’s promise of “total global humiliation,” from text messages brought as evidence, had come true. “I know he promised it. I testified to this,” Heard said. “I’m not—a good victim. I get it. I’m not a likable victim. I’m not a perfect victim. But I—when I testified, I asked the jury to just see me as human and to hear his own words, which is a promise to do this. It feels as though he has.”

 
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