Amber Heard has admitted she "still loves" her ex-husband Johnny Depp despite their bombshell defamation trial.
The Aquaman actress insisted during the second instalment of her NBC News interview, which aired on TODAY on Wednesday, that she still loves the Pirates of the Caribbean star despite the inner workings of their tumultuous marriage being exposed in defamation trials in the U.K. in 2020 and the U.S. very recently.
"I love him. I loved him with all my heart. And I tried the best I could to make a deeply broken relationship work. I couldn't," she told journalist Savannah Guthrie. "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, it should be easy."
Heard gave the interview to address her recent loss at the U.S. trial. A jury found her liable of defaming Depp in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed and he was awarded $10.4 million (£8.6 million) in damages. The jury also ruled that Depp defamed Heard on one of three counts relating to comments made by his former attorney and she was awarded $2 million (£1.6 million).
When asked by Guthrie if she is afraid of speaking out at the risk of more legal action, Heard replied, "I'm scared that no matter what I do, no matter what I say or how I say it, every step that I take will present another opportunity for this sort of silencing, which I guess is what a defamation lawsuit is meant to do - it's meant to take your voice."
She insisted that she wasn't trying to cancel Depp, who she was married to between 2015 and 2016, with her op-ed and her intention was to give "my voice to a bigger cultural conversation", meaning the #MeToo movement.
The 36-year-old was also asked about a text message Depp wrote to her vowing that she would suffer "total global humiliation" and if she thought his threat had come true.
"I testified to this. I'm not a good victim, I get it, I'm not a likable victim, I'm not a perfect victim," she replied. "But when I testified I asked the jury to just see me as human and hear his own words, which is a promise to do this. It feels as though he has."
The remainder of her interview will air on a special episode of Dateline on Friday night.
