Amber Heard Shares Why She Believes She’s Been Labelled A ‘Liar’ In Depp Trial

Amber Heard has explained why she believes she’s been labeled a “liar” during the Johnny Depp trial.

Heard is being sued by Depp for $50m (£40.1m) for implying he abused her in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed. Although she didn’t specifically name him, Depp claims her allegations impacted his ability to work.

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The matter of Heard’s claimed charity donation of the divorce settlement she reached with Depp was raised in court on Monday (16 May).

In 2018, the Aquaman star told Dutch TV show RTL Late Night that she had paid half of her $7m (£5.6m) divorce settlement to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) charity.

However, years after the charity said they were yet to receive the donation, Heard told the court she has “not been able to fulfil those obligations yet”.

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Depp’s lawyer asked if her announcement was due to wanting “praise”, “good press” and to “seem altruistic publicly”, to which Heard replied: “That wasn’t my interest.”

Elaborating, Heard said: “My interest is in my name – in clearing my name. At the time, I was being called a ‘liar’ and my motives were being questioned. I did see it as important to clear that up.”

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She continued: “I wanted to make a statement to make sure there was not any doubt. That I couldn’t be labeled these things just because Johnny was the bigger star and had more publicity reach.”

Explaining why she had not yet fulfilled her pledges to charity, Heard claimed the legal costs of Depp's lawsuit against her had prevented her from doing so. Depp filed his $50m defamation lawsuit in March 2019 following an op-ed written by Heard in The Washington Post the previous year.

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Heard claimed she still 'fully intend[s] on honouring all of' her pledges, adding: "I would love him to stop suing me so I can.”

Last month, Terence Dougherty, the chief operating officer and general counsel of the ACLU, gave testimony in a pre-recorded deposition filmed in December in which he claimed Heard had donated $1.3m to the charity at the time. Dougherty also said Heard had sent an email to the charity saying the ACLU should not issue a press release announcing the pledge.

Though Heard implied belief Depp has more public support in the trial, Depp has previously claimed he 'lost' the 'second the allegations were made' against him.

"I lost because that is not a thing that anyone is going just put on your back for a short period of time. I will live with that for the rest of my life," the actor told the court in April.

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On Monday, Heard at times broke down in tears as she recalled her relationship with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor. She characterized their relationship as "violent and chaotic" at times.

The court played clips of a discussion between Heard and Depp, where she can be heard telling her ex-husband that even though she has evidence of his abuse towards her, she doesn't want to go public with it because she didn't want to "hurt" him.

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"I was begging Johnny to not make me prove what I've had to sit on this stand in front of all of you and prove and talk about. … I didn't want this. I don't want to be here," Heard said. "I was trying to point out how absurd it would be for him to keep making me prove this by calling me a liar."

Depp's attorney CamilleVasquez on Tuesday afternoon ended her cross-examination of Heard, which was followed by the redirect questioning of Heard, lasting only a few minutes, as Depp's lawyers objected to nearly every question that Heard's lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, tried to ask.

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Amber Heard wrapped up her testimony Tuesday after four days on the witness stand in the libel suit filed against her by her ex-husband, Johnny Depp.

Depp is suing Heard in Fairfax County Circuit Court for libel over an op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as "a public figure representing domestic abuse." His lawyers say he was defamed by the 2018 article even though it never mentioned his name.

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Heard and her attorneys argued the 2018 Washington Post column did nothing to damage Depp’s reputation – that the abuse accusations had been public for two years already, and Depp’s spiraling career was the result of his drinking and drug use, which made him an unreliable commodity to Hollywood studios.