The popular consensus about Amber Heard – in the court of public opinion, and an actual court – is that she’s a liar. And yesterday she gave her first post-trial interview, to America’s Today Show, and again said something most people will struggle to believe.
Asked if she still had love for ex-husband Johnny Depp, she replied, “Absolutely. I love him. I loved him with all my heart.”
She also, in the same breath, stood by every single one of her accusations about him physically and sexually abusing her.
Confusing? Definitely. Lying? Not necessarily. The popular adage goes that the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. One thing you could never accuse Amber Heard and Johnny Depp of is being indifferent to each other.
They have both spent a lot of money over the last few years ensuring that they had to spend every single day together for weeks on end, albeit in courtrooms with the world devouring every detail of their – in some cases literally – dirty laundry.
Amber explained in the interview that she had “tried the best I could to make a deeply broken relationship work, and I couldn’t.”
From all the information we are now privy to about their marriage, it is clear to anyone that while it grew to become incredibly toxic, at the start this couple were deeply in love. And they are celebrities, and actors, so that means it was probably all massively dramatic and over the top.
They got utterly swept away, consumed by each other. Entries were read aloud in court from the ‘love journal’ the couple used to write in, to communicate with each other when overcome with their feelings for one another. You know, like all married people do.
“You are my cornerstone, my heart, my all,” went one of Amber’s entries, “You are my life.”
Despite all that she still insists – and he denies – happened between them, you don’t – can’t - just automatically switch off love. More’s the pity, sometimes.
At risk of oversimplifying a very complicated dynamic, this is surely a factor in why so many abused women end up going back to the partners who abused them.
Sometimes the heart rules the head, unfortunately.
Whatever Amber Heard chooses to do now, whether she appeals as she has said she will, or decides to put the whole unpleasant mess behind her, hopefully her love for Johnny Depp will fade, and eventually evaporate. Because the sad truth of the matter is that she can’t properly heal, and move on, until it’s gone.
