A juror in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial said they did not believe Heard’s “crocodile tears” and the way she responded to questions “didn’t seem natural” to him. On June 1, a Virginia jury found that Depp sufficiently proved that Heard defamed him in three statements in her 2018 Washington Post op-ed, in which she wrote about being the survivor of domestic violence. The jury found Heard only proved she was defamed by Depp in one of the three statements she said were defamatory. Depp was awarded $10.4 million in damages, while Heard was awarded $2 million.
“It didn’t come across as believable,” the juror, whose name was not released, told ABC News’ Good Morning America in an interview published Thursday. “It seemed like she was able to flip the switch on her emotions. She would answer one question and she would be crying and two seconds later she would turn ice cold. It didn’t seem natural.” The juror, who is the first to publicly speak out, said he found Depp “a little more real in terms of how he responded to questions.” The man asked that his name not be published.
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The jury believed Heard and Depp were “both abusive towards each other,” but they did not believe Heard sufficiently proved Depp was physically abusive, the juror said. They “had their husband-wife arguments,” he said, but he believed “there wasn’t enough or any evidence” to support the claims Heard made against Depp.
A majority of the jury also believed Heard was the “aggressor” in the relationship, the man said. “If you have a battered wife or spouse situation, why would you buy the other person, the ‘aggressor,’ a knife? If you really wanted to help Johnny Depp get off drugs, why are you taking drugs around him?” the juror asked. Heard testified the knife was a gift, and Depp’s lawyers showed it to the jury.
The juror said they dismissed anything witnesses from both sides had to say, so most of his interview with GMA was critiques of Heard’s testimony. He said the fact that Heard did not make-up when she filed her 2016 restraining order against Depp was a problem because her defense team told them Heard always wears make-up when she goes outside. They also believed one of the photos Heard showed of herself bruised by Depp was altered. He called the fact that Heard hasn’t finished donating her $7 million settlement a “fiasco.”
The man also told GMA that Heard needed “better advice” from her defense team. The jury was “very uncomfortable” because Heard looked at them when answering questions. He said Heard’s lawyers had “sharp elbows versus being sharp.”
He also believes the Washington Post op-ed from 2018 was a bad idea. “If she didn’t do any of this stuff with the op-eds, Johnny Depp could have helped her out in her career,” he said, adding that their relationship didn’t take a “nasty turn” until after the op-ed was published. (Heard did accuse Depp of being “verbally and physically abusive” when she obtained a restraining order against him in May 2016 as she filed for divorce. When they reached a settlement, Depp and Heard said in a joint statement that their “relationship was intensely passionate and periodically volatile, but always bound by love.” They also said that neither of them “made false accusations for financial gain.”)
Lastly, the juror also denied allegations that the jury was “bribed” or swayed by social media. “We didn’t take into account anything outside [the courtroom]. We only looked at the evidence. They were very serious accusations and a lot of money was involved. So we weren’t taking it lightly,” the man said, adding that none of them were “really fans” of either actor.
