Featured Image Credit: NBC News/Alamy
Topics: Celebrity, Amber Heard, Johnny Depp
Jake Massey
Amber Heard has challenged Johnny Depp to sit an interview of his own after his legal team responded to hers.
Heard spoke about the verdict for the first time since the trial with NBC News' Savannah Guthrie, and a spokesperson for Depp subsequently accused her of 'repeating, reimagining and re-litigating matters that have already been decided'.
Now, a spokesperson for Heard has challenged the Pirates of the Caribbean star to step forward and be interviewed.
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The spokesperson told DailyMail.com: "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."
Depp, 59, sued his ex-wife Heard, 36, for $50 million (£38.2 million) in a defamation lawsuit over domestic abuse claims she made in a 2018 article in The Washington Post, and she issued a counterclaim for $100m (£76.4m).
The article did not mention Depp by name, yet his lawyers argued it falsely implied he physically and sexually abused the Aquaman actor while they were together.
The jury found in favour of Depp, finding that what Heard wrote in her op-ed piece was defamatory, and awarded him $10.35 million (£8.2 million) in damages.
In her Today interview, Heard said she feared her former husband could take further legal action against her.
When Guthrie asked whether she was nervous about what she can now say, she replied: "Of course. I took for granted what I assumed was my right to speak."
Guthrie then questioned her over whether she felt she could be sued for defamation again.
Heard replied: "I am 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 silencing, which I guess is what a defamation lawsuit is meant to do – it is meant to take your voice."
Guthrie also asked whether Depp's claim that he never hit her was a lie, to which she answered: "Yes it is."
Responding to the interview, a spokesperson for Depp said: "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 favour."
Depp and Heard began dating after meeting on the set of 2011 film The Rum Diary and got married in 2015. Heard obtained a restraining order against Depp the following year and they finalised their divorce in 2017.
In 2020, Depp lost a libel case brought against The Sun over an article in which he was labelled a 'wife beater'.
He has denied all allegations of abuse.
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