Amber Heard She Still Has 'A Love' For Johnny Depp As $50-Million Defamation Trial Looms

Amber Heard released a statement on the eve of her defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp on Monday, April 11, the "Aquaman" franchise star telling her fans that she hopes for a swift conclusion in her battles with Depp, as well as expressing her remaining love for her former partner.

In a statement released on Instagram on Saturday, Heard gave her thoughts about the upcoming trial while seeking to clarify that she did not specify Depp’s name in her Washington Post op-ed detailing her history in abusive relationships with sexual violence, according to Deadline.

“I never named him, rather I wrote about the price women pay for speaking against men in power. I continue to pay that price, but hopefully when this case concludes, I can move on and so can Johnny,” she said in the Instagram post. “I have always maintained a love for Johnny and it brings me great pain to have to live out the details of our past life together in front of the world.”

Depp had sued her for $50 million in a defamation suit where he alleged that the op-ed she wrote lost him a potential deal relaunching the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise at Disney. He also claims that Heard was the real “perpetrator” of abuse in their relationship.

Depp previously lost a lawsuit in 2020 where a London judge ruled that The Sun tabloid did not commit libel when they called him a “wife-beater” in one of their issues, ruling as well that Depp did in fact beat his ex-wife regularly when they were married, the New York Post reported.

The ex-couple has been battling each other in the courts over their divorce, with Heard filing a $100-million countersuit against Depp, as well as a possible argument by her lawyers to the jury saying that Heard deserves immunity due to Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation regulations as she was speaking out about a culture of abuse in her op-ed.

The witnesses in the upcoming defamation trial happening in Virginia includes Heard’s ex-lover Elon Musk and actors Paul Bettany, Ellen Barkin, and James Franco.