Amber Heard news: Actor says ‘binder’ of evidence not allowed in Depp trial could have changed verdict

Follow for the latest updates on the aftermath of the Amber Heard v Johnny Depp trial

Amber Heard says she still loves Johnny Depp

Amber Heard has claimed that a “binder” of evidence including therapist notes and text messages that the jury didn’t see could have changed the verdict in her defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp.

Ms Heard’s full interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie aired on Dateline on Friday night, where the Aquaman actor said that her therapist had contemporaneously documented her allegations of abuse since 2011.

According to the notes, Ms Heard told her therapist that Mr Depp “hit her, threw her on floor” in an alleged incident in 2012.

Ms Heard’s team also shared text messages including where she appeared to tell her father that Mr Depp had kicked her on an airplane.

The notes and texts were not allowed as evidence in the case after the judge ruled them inadmissible.

Mr Depp has denied ever abusing Ms Heard.

On Thursday, Mr Depp’s team responded to Ms Heard’s interview saying: “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 unequivocally decided by a jury in Johnny’s favor.”

Key Points

• Heard says ‘binder’ of therapist’s notes could have led to different verdict
• Heard’s text message to therapist: ‘Johnny did a number on me tonight’
• Revelation Amber Heard didn’t donate $7m divorce settlement was a ‘fiasco’ says juror
• Heard says she still loves Johnny Depp
• Trial juror says Amber Heard’s ‘ice cold’ testimony was perceived as ‘crocodile tears’
• Why Heard is speaking out now

[19 June 2022 11:30 · Rachel Sharp]

‘I don’t blame jury,’ says Heard

Amber Heard said she doesn’t blame the jury for handing down its verdict in the defamation case, telling Savannah Guthrie that she’s not surprised with their decision because Johnny Depp is a “beloved character”.

Ms Guthrie told Ms Heard: “There’s no polite way to say it, the jury looked at the evidence you presented, they listened to your evidence and they did not believe you. They thought you were lying.”

Ms Heard replied: “How could they make a judgement, how could they not come to that conclusion? They had sat in those seats and heard over three weeks of non-stop relentless testimony from paid employees, and towards the end of the trial, randos.”

“So you don’t blame the jury,” Ms Guthrie asked.

“I don’t blame them. I actually understand. He’s a beloved character and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor,” Ms Heard said.

The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander has the full story:

[19 June 2022 12:30 · Rachel Sharp]

Heard sent father text claiming Depp kicked her on plane

Amber Heard sent her father a text message claiming that Johnny Depp kicked her on an airplane, the actress revealed in her interview with NBC’s Dateline on Friday night.

The message, from 2014, read: “I keep not fighting back. He literally kicked me and called me a [redacted] in front of everyone on the plane. It’s humiliating”.

At the trial, Ms Heard testified about the alleged incident on an airplane where she accused Mr Depp of assaulting her.

Mr Depp denied the allegations.

The text was among those Ms Heard’s legal team shared with NBC, claiming it was evidence of the alleged abuse that she suffered.

The messages were not presented as evidence to the jury in the defamation trial after the judge deemed them inadmissible in court.

[19 June 2022 13:30 · Rachel Sharp]

Depp to face another legal battle next month

Johnny Depp is facing another legal battle next month in an upcoming lawsuit brought by a former coworker who has accused him of assault.

Mr Depp is being sued by Gregg “Rocky” Brooks who alleges that the actor punched him twice on the set of the movie City of Lies in 2017.

Attorneys Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew, who shot to fame in his defamation trial with Amber Heard, are returning to represent him again.

Mr Depp denies assaulting Mr Brooks.

[19 June 2022 14:30 · Rachel Sharp]

Guthrie shouldn’t have interviewed Heard, say experts

Ethics and journalism experts have said that Savannah Guthrie should not have interviewed Amber Heard given her husband’s connection to Johnny Depp.

Rebecca Aguilar, the president of the Society of Professional Journalists, told Business Insider that Ms Guthrie interviewing Ms Heard was a “confict of interest”.

“Ms Guthrie was transparent by letting viewers know her husband worked for the Depp legal team before her interview aired on the ‘Today’ show,” she said.

“Still, she could have avoided becoming part of the story by allowing another NBC anchor to interview the Depp team and later with Ms Amber Heard.

“Ms Guthrie should be far away from this story to show her viewers that she is fair, transparent, and ethical.”

The NBC host admitted last week that her husband worked as a consultant for Mr Depp’s legal team.

Ms Guthrie is married to Michael Feldman, a public relations consultant and one-time Democratic political adviser who worked on Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign.

She made the disclosure about the connection last week when she interviewed Mr Depp’s attorneys Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew on the Today show.

“A quick disclosure, my husband has done consulting work for the Depp legal team, but not in connection with this interview,” she said.

Ms Guthrie also previously interviewed Ms Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft on the Today show the morning after the verdict was announced.

[19 June 2022 15:15 · Rachel Sharp]

Heard opens up about how she will talk to her daughter about Depp case

Amber Heard opened up about how she will talk to her daughter about her defamation case with Johnny Depp when the little girl is old enough, in her interview with Savannah Guthrie.

Ms Heard said she was looking forward to being “a mom” without having to juggle her legal battles.

“I get to be a mom. Like full time, where I don’t have to juggle calls with lawyers,” she said.

Ms Guthrie asked her if she would tell her daughter “everything” in future.

“One day you may want to tell your daughter about this,” she said.

“Or have to tell your daughter about everything you’ve gone through. What would you want to say?”

Ms Heard replied: “I think no matter what, it will mean something. I did the right thing.

“I did everything I could to stand up for myself and the truth.”

[19 June 2022 16:00 · Rachel Sharp]

Heard says therapist has ‘binder’ of notes about abuse

Amber Heard says her doctor kept contemporaneous notes of the physical abuse she suffered while married to Johnny Depp.

In her interview with Savannah Guthrie, Ms Heard explained that she had been reporting physical abuse within her relationship since 2011. The couple married in 2015.

“There’s a binder worth of years of notes dating back to 2011, from the very beginning of my relationship, that were taken by my doctor who I was reporting the abuse to,” she said.

Ms Guthrie and her reporting team at NBC looked at the notes to confirm what Heard had been telling her therapist since 2012.

According to Guthrie, in January 2012, Heard told her therapist that Depp “hit her, threw her on the floor”.

The Independent’s Amanda Whiting has the full story:

[19 June 2022 16:45 · Rachel Sharp]

Heard suggests Depp’s exes are afraid to accuse him of abuse

Amber Heard has suggested that Johnny Depp’s other former partners may be too afraid of a backlash to come forward with accusations of abuse against the Pirates of the Caribbean star.

In her interview on NBC’s Dateline on Friday night, the Aquaman actor responded to a question from Savannah Guthrie about why she is the only one of Mr Depp’s exes to publicly accuse him of violence.

“Look what happened to me when I came forward,” she said. “Would you?”

Throughout the couple’s explosive defamation trial in Fairfax, Virginia, Ms Heard testified about multiple alleged incidents of abuse.

Mr Depp denied ever abusing Ms Heard and instead claimed that she was the abuser in their relationship.

In a dramatic moment of the trial, supermodel Kate Moss testified that her ex-boyfriend Mr Depp was never violent to her when they dated in the 1990s.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:

[19 June 2022 17:30 · Rachel Sharp]

Heard says speaking out about alleged sexual violence is ‘scariest thing’

Amber Heard described speaking out about the alleged sexual violence that she suffered as the “scariest, most intimidating thing” in her first interview since a jury sided with Johnny Depp in their defamation case.

The Aquaman actor told Savannah Guthrie in her interview on NBC’s Dateline on Friday night that she was “terrified” about being cross-examined by her ex-husband’s legal team and “not being believed” about her allegations.

“The scariest, most intimidating thing for anybody talking about sexual violence is not being believed, being called a liar, or being humiliated,” she said.

Ms Heard told Ms Guthrie, whose husband has worked as a consultant for Mr Depp’s legal team, that she was not being “vindictive” by sitting down for an interview in the aftermath of the case.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:

[19 June 2022 18:15 · Rachel Sharp]

Heard claims texts to father are evidence of abuse

Amber Heard claimed that text messages she sent to friends and family during her relationship with Johnny Depp are evidence of the physical abuse she suffered during their marriage.

In her interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, Ms Heard’s legal team shared multiple messages she had sent to her therapist and her father.

The text messages were not presented as evidence to the jury in the defamation trial after the judge deemed them inadmissible in court.

The Independent’s Amanda Whiting has the full story:

[19 June 2022 19:00 · Rachel Sharp]

Heard’s text message to therapist: ‘Johnny did a number on me tonight’

In a text message Amber Heard claims to have sent to her therapist on 16 December 2015, she wrote:

“Johnny did a number on me tonight. I’m safe and with my support tonight but I need some real help. Can I come tomorrow.

“I called earlier because I thought I had a concussion and didn’t know if I should have called police. But I have a nurse close to me.”

The text message was part of what Ms Heard said was a trove of evidence that she claims helped prove her allegations of abuse by her ex-husband Johnny Depp but was not presented to the jury at trial.

Mr Depp denies ever abusing Ms Heard.

Jurors were not shown the text messages after the judge ruled them to be inadmissible.

They were shared with NBC’s Dateline by Ms Heard’s team for her sitdown interview with Savannah Guthrie.