Amber Heard defended her side during her ex-husband Johnny Depp’s six week defamation trial, telling NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie that “to my dying day” she would “stand by every word in my testimony.”
In her first interview since a jury largely side with Depp, Heard also delved into potentially damaging evidence that could have swayed the jury.
She also suggested that jurors could have seen the blizzard of social media messages against her, telling Guthrie, “I think the vast majority of this trial was played out on social media. I think that this trial is an example of that gone haywire, gone amok. And the jury is not immune to that.”
Guthrie said, “Do you think the jury saw it?”
“How could they not? I think even the most well intentioned juror, it would have been impossible to avoid this.”
Parts of the interview are airing on Today on Tuesday and Wednesday and on a special Dateline on Friday.
Heard said that “every single day I passed for three, four, sometimes six blocks, city blocks, lined with people holding signs saying, ‘Burn the witch.’ ‘Death to Amber.’ After three and a half weeks, I took the stand and saw just a courtroom packed full of Jack Sparrow fans who were vocal, energized.”
Guthrie went through aspects of what was presented in court, including an audio transcript in which she said, “I did start a physical fight. I can’t promise you I won’t get physical again.”
Depp’s lawyers spent much of the trial trying to undermine her credibility. Heard said that she struck Depp in defense.”I never had to instigate it. I responded to it.”
Heard said, “I know much has been made of these audio tapes. They were first leaked online after being edited. What you hear in those clips are not evidence of what was happening, with evidence of the negotiation, of how to talk about that.”
“As I testified on the stand about this, that when your life is at risk, not only will you take the blame for things that you shouldn’t take the blame for,” Heard said. “When you’re in an abusive dynamic, psychologically, emotionally and physically, you don’t have the resourcesthat, say, you or I do, with the luxury of saying, ‘Hey, this is black and white, because it’s anything but when you are living in it.”
Guthrie asked Heard about other audio, “where you’re taunting him and saying, ‘I’ll tell the world, Johnny Depp, I, a man, the victim of domestic violence.’”
Heard said that those clips “are not representative of” two and three hours recordings.
“Could your side have just put the whole three hours in there?”
“I’m not a lawyer,” Heard said. “As I testified to, I was talking in those recordings as a person in an extreme among of emotional, psychological and physical distress.”
Guthrie said, “He said that he never hit you. …Is that a lie?”
“Yes it is,” Heard responded.
Asked about the witnesses who backed up Depp’s testimony, Heard said, “I’ve seen firsthand how people will follow rank and support a person they depend on.”