Amber Heard said she witnessed the tidal wave of backlash against her. Photo / Supplied
Amber Heard said she witnessed the tidal wave of backlash against her. Photo / Supplied
Amber Heard has opened up about the fallout from her court defeat against ex-husband Johnny Depp, as her full one-hour TV interview aired in full in the US today.
Heard sat down with journalist Savannah Guthrie for a special episode of NBC's Dateline for the interview, segments of which hadbeen previewed on US television throughout the week. The full interview made for at-times tense viewing, as Guthrie repeatedly challenged the star and Heard opened up about facing a global backlash as the trial went on.
Here are the key moments from Heard's full interview:
Interviewer challenges Heard on key points
Guthrie did not go easy on Heard, calling her out on some of the biggest controversies from the trial – which she repeatedly reminded Heard that she had lost.
"There's no polite way to say it – the jury looked at your evidence and they did not believe you," Guthrie told her guest at one point.
She also asked Heard about her claim that she had donated the full $US7 million from her divorce settlement to charity – a claim which was later proven to be untrue.
This image released by NBC News shows journalist Savannah Guthrie, right, during an exclusive interview with actor Amber Heard on Dateline NBC. Photo / NBC News, AP
"I think when you say to someone 'I bought a house', are you lying? Because you have not paid for it in full at that point. I made a pledge and that pledge is made over time in its nature," Heard said – a comparison that immediately drew the ire of some viewers.
Guthrie then accused Heard of "splitting hairs" and asked if she'd been caught in a lie.
"I don't know, because so much of the trial was meant to cast aspersions on who I am as a human, to call me a liar," Heard began, which prompted Guthrie to interject: "That WAS the trial. It WAS a credibility contest."
Guthrie also confronted Heard with transcripts of audio played in court, in which she had admitted to starting a physical fight with Depp.
"You say you never started a physical fight, but here you are on tape saying you started a physical fight," she told her.
Guthrie pointed out none of Depp's exes had alleged he'd abused them.
"Look what happened to me when I came forward – would you?" Heard asked.
Heard said she would stand by her accusations against her ex-husband "to my dying day".
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard at the European premiere of their film The Rum Diary in London. Photo / AP
Heard opens up about intense backlash
The actress described facing a tidal wave of support for Depp – and hate for her – as she attended court each day.
"I passed city blocks of people with signs saying things you couldn't repeat on television," she said.
"I saw the courtroom packed full of Captain Jack Sparrow fans who had come from all corners of the world. The jury saw all of that."
She said it was a traumatic experience, "testifying about sexual assault and violence in front of a whole room of people who have expressed their disdain for me".
Guthrie noted that in one text aired in the trial, Depp vowed to enact "total global humiliation" on Heard.
"I'm not a good victim, I get it. I'm not a likeable victim. I'm not a saint. I'm not asking anyone to like me. But when I testified, I asked the jury to see me as human. He promised to ruin me – it feels as though he has."
Amber challenged on her 'bad behaviour'
Guthrie asked Heard if she now felt she should have "owned up" to more of her own "bad behaviour" in the relationship which was aired in court via audiotapes.
"I'm glad you asked me that," Heard began.
"There is an answer to these things you say. You hear my voice in those audiotapes – it's not the voice of me now, it's not who I am now. I did do and say horrible, regrettable things throughout my relationship. I behaved in horrible, almost unrecognisable ways to myself. There is so much I regret," she said.
"I did everything I could to stand up for myself and the truth. I look forward to living my life and I have a long one, I hope, in front of me. And I will continue to walk through this with my chin up."
Guthrie also asked Heard about Depp's lawyer Camille Vasquez' repeated assertions in court that her emotional allegations of abuse were all a performance.
"Says the lawyer for the man who convinced the world he had scissors for fingers? And I'm the performer?" Heard asked, referencing the Depp film Edward Scissorhands.
"I listened to weeks of testimony about how I'm a terrible actress ... I'm a bit confused about how I could be both."
Amber Heard says she doesn't blame the jury that awarded Johnny Depp more than US$10 million after a contentious six-week libel trial in her first post-verdict interview. Photo / AP
Documents detail alleged abuse
In preparation for the tell-all interview, Heard gave Dateline numerous documents from a doctor that she said "represented years, years of real-time explanations of what was going on".
"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 explained of the documents, which were shown on screen during the special.
The documents detail repeated alleged instances of violence from Depp – including a 2012 altercation in which he allegedly "hit her, threw her against a wall and threatened to kill her".
Heard's legal team claim they were unable to use the documents as evidence during the trial due to "hearsay".
She 'still loves' Johnny
In a segment from the interview that was first released earlier this week, Heard confessed that she "absolutely still loves" her ex-husband, despite repeating her claims that he abused her.
Asked whether she still loved Depp, Heard said: "Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. I love him. I loved him with all my heart and I tried the best I could to make a deeply broken relationship work. And I couldn't.
"I have no bad feelings or ill will towards him at all. I know that might be hard to understand or it might be really easy to understand if you've ever loved anyone."
Heard's challenge to Depp
Hours before the interview aired in the US, Heard publicly challenged Depp to follow her lead and do a TV interview "for an hour and answer all questions" about allegations of abuse in their marriage.
"If Depp or his team have a problem with this, we recommend that Johnny himself sit down with Savannah Gutherie [sic] for an hour and answer all her questions," Heard's spokesperson said in a statement issued hours before the broadcast.
