Amber Heard Says Therapist Notes Not Allowed in Defamation Trial Would Have Led to Different Verdict
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Amber Heard said during a Dateline interview that notes taken by her doctor, who she was reporting abuse to, would have led jurors to side with her in her defamation case against Johnny Depp if they were allowed into the trial.
“There’s a binder [of] years of notes dating back to 2011 from the very beginning of my relationship that were taken by my doctor,” Heard said.
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In Heard’s full interview with NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie on the trial, which aired on the newsmagazine on Friday, the actress said that the notes would have corroborated claims that Depp abused her, including an incident in 2013 in which she told her therapist that Depp threw her against a wall and threatened to kill her.
“I’m talking about what happened to me in real time,” Heard said. “She’s taking contemporaneous notes of what’s happening.”
The notes were reviewed by NBC. Guthrie said, “As far back as 2012, Amber was talking about physical abuse. In January of that year, she told her therapist Depp hit her, threw her on the floor. Eight months after that, ripped her nightgown, threw her on bed.”
Judge Penney Azcarate had ruled the notes as “hearsay” and refused to allow the evidence into the trial, unlike proceedings in the United Kingdom, where Depp lost his defamation case against The Sun, which had called him a “wife beater” in a story. In that trial, the judge ruled that The Sun proved that 12 of the 14 incidents of abuse were substantially true.
Heard also took issue with texts that weren’t allowed into the trial. In one to her father, she wrote that Depp “kicked me in front of everyone.” She was referring to a fight heavily litigated in the trial in which she claimed that Depp was intoxicated and verbally and physically abused her.
A spokesperson for Depp told NBC News: “It’s unfortunate that while Johnny is looking to move forward with his life, the defendant and her team are back to repeating, reimagining and re-litigating matters that have already been decided by the Court and a verdict that was unanimously and unequivocally decided by a jury in Johnny’s favor.”
In a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, a spokesperson for Heard said in response, “If Mr. Depp or his team have a problem with this, we recommend that Johnny himself sit down with Savannah Guthrie for an hour and answer all her questions.”
In the portions that previously aired on Today, Heard spoke of the emotional toll of the verdict, which saw a Virginia jury ruling in Depp’s favor and awarding him $10.35 million in his suit against Heard. And while she vehemently stood by her testimony, she also said she didn’t “blame” the jury for not believing her claims of abuse, given the fandom surrounding the trial. “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,” she said, in part.
While clips aired on Today, the full sit-down aired in a special Dateline episode Friday. The first 20 minutes of the interview released early Friday on Peacock, the network’s streaming site, and the portion includes new evidence that Heard’s lawyers shared with NBC News.
On June 1, the Virginia jury ruled in Depp’s favor on all three claims that he was defamed when Heard wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in which she called herself a domestic abuse survivor. He was also mostly vindicated of allegations that he defamed Heard by calling her accusations a hoax. Heard won one of her three claims that a statement from Depp’s lawyer was defamatory.
Heard’s NBC News interview follows morning talk show appearances from both Heard’s and Depp’s lawyers post-verdict.
Heard plans to appeal and move on, as she discussed in the portions of her interview that aired this week on Today. “I will continue to walk through this with my chin up,” she told Guthrie.
Toward the end of the interview, Heard was asked how she sees her future and whether she still wants to act.
“I get to be a mom,” Heard replied. “I get to be a mom full-time.”
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