Amber Heard has said she fears Johnny Depp could sue her for defamation again.
In the latest instalment of her interview with NBC Today, the 36-year-old actress told journalist Savannah Guthrie she is scared that “every step that I take will present another opportunity for silencing”.
The interview, her first on TV since the case concluded two weeks ago, saw her questioned over a text shown in evidence in which Depp appeared to threaten her with “total global humiliation”.
Asked whether he had achieved that, Heard said: “I know he promised it. I testified to this. I am not a good victim, I get it. I am not a likeable victim. I am not a perfect victim. But when I testified I asked the jury to see me as human and here, his own words, which is a promise to do this, it seems as though he has.”
On whether she is nervous about what she can now say, she said: “Of course. I took for granted what I assumed was my right to speak.”
Asked whether she feels she could be sued for defamation again, she said: “I am scared that, no matter what I do, no matter what I say or how I say it, every step that I take will present another opportunity for silencing, which I guess is what a defamation lawsuit is meant to do – it is meant to take your voice.”
Two weeks ago, the jury found a 2018 article that Heard wrote for the Washington Post about her experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse to be defamatory.
Depp consistently denied during his own evidence the “outrageous, outlandish” claims of abuse and said he had “spoken up for what I have been carrying on my back reluctantly for six years”.
The 59-year-old was awarded $10.35 million (€9.5 million) in damages.
Heard won on one count of her countersuit, successfully arguing that Depp’s press agent defamed her by claiming her allegations were “an abuse hoax” aimed at capitalising on the #MeToo movement.
The jury awarded her $2 million in damages.
As deliberations took place, Depp appeared on stage with veteran rock guitarist Jeff Beck (77) during his UK tour and the pair also recently announced a collaborative album.
Depp previously lost a similar trial in the UK which he brought against the publisher of The Sun newspaper after an article, also written in 2018, referred to him as a “wife-beater”.
