FAIRFAX, Va. (CN) — In no uncertain terms, actress Amber Heard made clear Thursday that she will not be silenced – even after a wrenching six-week trial in which her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, sued her for defamation because she identified herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse.
"I am harassed, humiliated, threatened, every single day – even just walking into this courtroom, sitting here," said Heard, the final witness in the trial. "People want to kill me, and they tell me so, every day. People want to put my baby in the microwave, and they tell me that."
During the trial held in Fairfax County, Virginia, Heard charged that Depp abused and sexually assaulted her. Depp vehemently denies the allegation. But Heard asserted that she is living with the trauma. "My hands shake. I wake up screaming," she said.
The solution to her pain, she said, is providing a voice for others.
“Protecting the secret that I did for as long as I did has taken enough of my voice. Johnny has taken enough of my voice. I have the right to tell my story. I have the right to say what happened to me. I have the right to my voice and my name," Heard said, sobbing throughout her testimony. "I have a right as an American to talk about what happened to me, to own my story and my truth."
Heard, 36, is the target of a $50 million lawsuit brought by Depp. The complaint contends that she defamed him with a December 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post in which she recalled becoming a public figure representing domestic abuse two years earlier – a period during which she was married to Depp, 58. Soon after the op-ed was published, Depp lost his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series.
Heard filed a $100 million counterclaim contending that Depp and one of his attorneys attempted to harm her career by making false statements about her.
Attorneys will deliver final arguments Friday morning. Afterward, the jury will begin deliberations, although Judge Penney Azcarate said they will not meet during the Memorial Day weekend.
Depp is known worldwide and spectators, who line up in the middle of the night to guarantee a seat in the courtroom, sometimes can be heard during the proceedings. On Thursday, with Heard on the stand, Azcarate announced, "Ladies and gentlemen of the gallery, I would ask that there be no words, no phrases, no sounds at all coming from you. If I hear one more sound, I will clear the gallery and we will continue this testimony without anyone in the courtroom.”
Heard previously testified when her attorneys presented their case. This time, she appeared as a rebuttal witness. Friends, family members, employees and outsiders have testified as well, sometimes giving variations of the same story.
During cross-examination Thursday, Camille Vasquez, one of Depp’s lawyers, grilled the "Aquaman" actress, focusing on discrepancies in witness testimony.
For example, a former TMZ employee testified that the website had received a tip that Heard would be at a Los Angeles courthouse to take out a restraining order against Depp on May 27, 2016.
“You told this jury that you had no idea that the press was going to be at the courthouse when you got your TRO [temporary restraining order] on May 27, 2016," Vasquez said. "Do you remember that testimony?”
“I said I did not have anything to do with it,” Heard responded.
Vasquez pointed out, “You did bring your publicist with you to the courthouse.”
“I’m a public figure,” Heard said. “I brought my publicist in case it blew up.”
“You actually had alerted TMZ that you would be filing a TRO that very day, didn’t you?” Vasquez pressed.
“No,” Heard said.
“The one day that you didn’t bother to wear makeup to cover the mark on your face,” Vasquez remarked, referring to an apparent bruise on Heard's face visible in photographs.
Heard, looking toward the jury, denied calling TMZ or any other news sources.
Afterward, Benjamin Rottenborn, one of Heard’s lawyers, asked the actress if Depp physically abused her.
“Yes,” Heard said.
“Verbally?” he asked.
“Yes,” she responded.
“Emotionally?”
“Yes.”
“Psychologically?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Depp, she testified, promised that he would ruin her.
"Ruin my career. He would take my life from me. Death was the only way out. And if I got out [of the marriage], this is what he would do to me. He would make me think of him every single day," Heard said.
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