Juror reveals why jury ruled against Amber Heard in libel trial
by 0 Amber Heard was “ice cold” and “didn’t seem natural” in court, a juror in the multimillion-dollar libel case brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp has said.
Speaking anonymously to Good Morning America, he revealed one of the reasons that the jury ruled against the actress was because her testimony “didn’t come across as believable”.
“It seemed like she was able to flip the switch on her emotions,” the juror said.
“She would answer one question and she would be crying and two seconds later she would turn ice cold. It didn’t seem natural.”
By contrast, Depp “just seemed a little more real in terms of how he responded to questions”.
In her first interview since the verdict on 1 June, Heard said she and Depp were “awful to each other” during their “toxic” relationship and admitted she made “a lot of mistakes – but always told the truth”.
Heard, 36, told NBC News that she still has love for her ex-husband and has “no bad feelings or ill will towards him”.
Asked whether Depp’s claim that he never hit her is a lie, Heard told the journalist Savannah Guthrie: “Yes it is.”
Depp has denied he abused Heard.
The actor, 59, was awarded $10.35m (£8.2m) in damages.
At the conclusion of the six-week trial Judge Penney Azcarate ruled that the identities of the seven jurors would remain secret for at least a year.
The juror criticised Heard’s legal team for “cutting off” witnesses and said they gave her poor advice, such as looking directly at the jury when responding to questions.
“All of us were very uncomfortable” at that, he said.
He also said the arguments over her charitable donations were “a fiasco”.
During the trial, Heard was challenged over why she had not yet donated her $7m (£5.7m) divorce settlement to charities as promised.
The juror also said there were inconsistencies in Heard’s testimony about her use of make-up.
Heard’s team failed her by telling the jury she “never goes outside without make-up on”, he said.
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“Yet she goes to file the restraining order without make-up on. And it just so happens her publicist is with her. Those things add up and starts to become hard to believe,” he said.
The juror denied the jury was swayed by outside forces. He and “at least” three others did not have Twitter accounts.
“Some people said we were bribed. That’s not true,” he said.
“Social media did not impact us. We followed the evidence. 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 involved. So we weren’t taking it lightly.”
He also denied the jury was starstruck.
“None of us were really fans of either one of them,” he said.
