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Amber Heard has called ex-husband Johnny Depp a liar and insisted she stands by “every word” of her bombshell statement – but admitted she regrets being so “horrible” during their “very, very toxic” marriage be.
“Until the day I die, I will stand by every word I say,” Heard, 36, told the Today show in an interview teaser Tuesday of the defamation allegations, which have cost her $10.4 million.
She bluntly said that Depp lied by denying he hit her, while insisting she was never the one to start violent fights in their “ugly” marriage.
“I never had to instigate it — I responded to it,” she insisted to Savannah Guthrie, saying audio clips of their struggles were edited and one abuse victim was caught whose life was “in danger.”
“When you live in violence and it becomes normal – as I have witnessed – you have to adapt,” she said of her own actions.
Still, she admitted, “I’ve done and said horrible, regrettable things throughout my relationship.
“I’ve been behaving in horrific ways, almost undetectable to myself.
“I regret it so much,” she said, blaming it “for being pushed so far I didn’t even know the difference between… right and wrong.”
She said marriage is “ugly” — but also “very beautiful” at times.
“We were terrible to each other. I’ve made a lot of mistakes – a lot of mistakes.
“But I’ve always told the truth,” she insisted.
The Aquaman actress called the six-week defamation trial “the most humiliating and horrific thing I’ve ever witnessed.”
“I’ve never felt so removed from my own humanity. I felt less than human,” she said.
“Every day I walked by three, four, sometimes six city blocks lined with people holding signs that read ‘Burn the Witch,’ ‘Death Amber,'” she said.
“After three and a half weeks, I took the stand and saw a courtroom full of loud-voiced, energetic Captain Jack Sparrow fans,” she said, referring to Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean character.
That overwhelming support for her ex ultimately got her the case, she said.
“I think the vast majority of that process played out on social media. I think this process is an example of how it went haywire, ran amok.”
When asked if she thought the jury saw the online support, she said: “How could they not? I think even the most well-intentioned juror would have been impossible to avoid.”
She also reiterated her lawyers’ claim that she lost because “really important pieces of evidence” were kept out of the case, evidence that helped her win a lawsuit in the UK.
She also praised Depp’s now famous lawyers.
“I will say that his attorneys certainly did a better job of distracting the jury from the real issues,” she said.
Despite this, she mocked them for claiming their testimony was just their last acting role.
“Says the lawyer of the man who convinced the world he had scissors for his fingers,” she said, referring to Depp’s role as Edwrad Scissorhands.
“For weeks I had listened to testimonies that implied – or said quite frankly – that I am a terrible actress.
“So I’m a bit confused as to how I could be both,” she said sarcastically.
Still, she admitted the wild statements leading up to her brutal courtroom loss also put her and her superstar ex in the worst possible light.
“I wouldn’t blame the average person for watching this and how it’s being reported and wouldn’t think it’s Hollywood brat at its worst,” she conceded to Savannah Guthrie.
“But what people don’t understand is that it’s actually so much bigger,” she insisted, saying it’s about “our first right to speak.”
“My understanding of what that means isn’t just freedom of speech — it’s freedom to speak truth to those in power,” she said.
“The truth is the word. And that’s all I’ve talked about.
“I spoke it to the Force — and I paid the price,” she said.
Her comments came on the second day of footage of a “widespread sitdown” that led to an hour-long “Dateline” special on Friday night.
On Monday, clips showed she also said she wasn’t surprised the Virginia jury ruled against her.
“How could they not come to that conclusion? They’d been in those seats listening to uninterrupted testimony from paid employees and — towards the end of the trial — randos for over three weeks,” Heard told Savannah Guthrie with a nervous chuckle.
“I don’t blame them. I actually get it – he’s a beloved character and people feel like they know him. He’s an amazing actor,” she said of her ex.
She insisted the trial was so one-sided that it was impossible for the jury not to be blinded by Depp and even reach a conclusion based solely on the facts.
“How could they not believe a word that came out of my mouth after three and a half weeks of listening to testimonies about how I was an incredible person?” she asked.
Amber also condemned the “hate and spite” she received online while her ex was widely praised and welcomed by the public.
“I don’t care what anyone thinks of me or what judgments you want to make about what happened behind closed doors in the privacy of my own home and marriage,” she told Guthrie.
“I don’t think the average person should know these things, so I don’t take it personally.
“But even someone who is sure I deserve all this hate and spite, even if you think I’m lying, you still couldn’t look me in the eyes and tell me you think it’s in the social media has given fair representation.
“You can’t tell me you think that’s fair.”
Depp won his bombshell defamation lawsuit after seven Fairfax jurors ruled in his favor that a Washington Post comment Heard wrote about him being a “public figure who depicts domestic violence” tarnished his reputation and his career had hurt.
Heard’s attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, blamed the legal loss on Depp’s team’s approach of “demonizing Amber and suppressing the evidence.”
Heard’s team also lashed out at her ex-husband for going on TikTok and lamenting the widespread support he’d received.
“While Johnny Depp says he’s moving ‘forward,’ women’s rights are moving backward,” a spokesman for Heard said in a statement.
“The message of the verdict to victims of domestic violence is … be afraid to stand up and speak up.”
The Washington Post has since added a lengthy editor’s note to Heard’s op-ed to highlight how it was deemed defamatory.
