Amber Heard has addressed her $100 million defamation trial which stems from a 2019 complaint by her ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Taking to social media, Heard, 35, shared her intention to go offline while the trial gets underway next week in Fairfax, Virginia.
Calling out her 58-year-old former husband by name, the Aquaman star explained that Depp was suing her for a piece she wrote for The Washington Post, despite not naming him in said piece.
Heard said in the message, posted yesterday: “I’m going to go offline for the next several weeks. As you may know, I’ll be in Virginia where I face my ex-husband Johnny Depp in court.”
She continued: “Johnny is suing me for an op-ed I wrote in The Washington Post, in which I recounted my experience of violence and domestic abuse. 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.
“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 word. At this time, I recognise the ongoing support I’ve been fortunate to receive throughout these years, and in these coming weeks I will be leaning on it more than ever.”
She captioned the lengthy message with a double heart emoji.
At the height of the #MeToo movement in December 2018, Heard wrote an op-ed published by The Washington Post, in which she called out an apparent societal shortcoming that sees perpetrators of domestic abuse prosper while their victims suffer.
In the piece, Heard spoke about claims she had made two years prior about suffering violent abuse earlier in life.
She wrote in the op-ed: "Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out."
Though Depp wasn't mentioned by name in the piece, Disney dropped him from his signature role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the franchise just four days after the op-ed was published.
The op-ed became the basis of a $50 million defamation lawsuit filed by Depp, in which he named Heard as a defendant. In response, Heard filed a $100 million countersuit.