Amber Heard Says She Hopes She and Ex-Husband Johnny Depp Can 'Move On' After Defamation Trial

"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," Amber Heard wrote on Instagram

Johnny Depp Amber Heard
Johnny Depp (L); Amber Heard. Photo: Marc Piasecki/WireImage; Phillip Faraone/Getty

Amber Heard says she will be taking time off social media as she prepares to face her ex-husband Johnny Depp in court.

The Aquaman actress, 35, shared a statement to Instagram on Saturday addressing her upcoming trial, in which Depp, 58, is suing her for defamation over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed about her experience surviving domestic violence.

"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," Heard wrote. "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 out 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 world," she continued.

"At this time, I recognize 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 added, before signing off: "With love always, A."

Depp and Heard first met while making 2011's The Rum Diaries and later wed in 2015. They split in May 2016 after Heard sought a domestic violence restraining order against Depp and accused him of abuse.

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While he denied abusing Heard, she eventually filed for divorce in 2016. They settled out of court in August of that year with the divorce being finalized in January 2017.

Amber Heard
Presley Ann/FilmMagic

Depp previously lost a trial against The Sun. After he sued the British tabloid for calling him a "wife-beater," a court upheld the outlet's claims as "substantially true." Depp's attempt to overturn the decision was overruled in March 2021.

Depp is now suing Heard directly in the upcoming defamation trial, which will take place in Fairfax, Virginia, next week after it was postponed multiple times since Depp first filed in March 2019.

Along with Heard and Depp, multiple celebrities are expected to be involved in the trial. James Franco, Ellen Barkin, and Elon Musk will testify virtually as witnesses for Heard, according to Deadline. Paul Bettany will testify virtually for Depp.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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