Amber Heard admits she still loves Johnny Depp and stands by her 'truth'

Amber Heard has admitted she still loves ex-husband Johnny Depp following the high-profile defamation case. 

In the final episode of a two-part interview with NBC's Today show, the actress said she has no ill feelings, despite losing a defamation trial to Depp.

Last month Depp was awarded US$15 million in damages from Heard, while Heard was awarded US$2 million in damages for one proven defamation claim.

When asked whether she still loved Depp, Heard responded "absolutely".

"I love him. I loved him with all my heart and I tried the best I could to make a deeply broken relationship work and I couldn't," she told the outlet on Wednesday (local time). 

"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 just ever loved anyone, it should be easy."

Months after the pair's marriage ended in 2016, Depp texted his former agent promising he would bring "total global humiliation" to Heard. She said in the interview that he fulfilled that promise.

"I'm not a good victim, I get it. I'm not a likeable victim. I'm not a perfect victim. 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." 

Heard also revealed she is nervous about what she says following the trial. 

"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 is what I guess a defamation lawsuit is meant to do," she told the Today show. "It's meant to take your voice."

Heard, her lawyers and domestic violence activists have said the trial could be devastating for domestic violence survivors and enforce harmful attitudes. 

A spokeswoman for domestic violence support charity Shine, Rachel Kain, said the immense backlash Heard received on social media will stop others from speaking out.

"If they think that this is the response they might get - if they are thinking about asking for help, if they are thinking about leaving the relationship, and this is what they are seeing on their screens, it's going to stop them from reaching out," Kain said.

Heard claimed she was a victim of domestic abuse in the Washington Post op-ed she wrote back in 2018 at the height of the Me Too movement - which Depp sued her for saying the claim she was abused was baseless.

Following the trial, Heard said she now gets time to be a full-time mother to her one-year-old daughter.

She said one day when she has to tell her daughter about the trial, she will tell her she did the right thing.

"No matter what it will mean something. I did the right thing. I did everything I could to stand up for myself and the truth."

Heard's lawyer has said she will appeal the jury's decision.