has spoken out about Blake Lively‘s recent complaint againstJustin Baldoni, as well as the social media backlash the actress faced earlier this year.
In a statement to NBC News, Heard said that social media is a perfect analogy for the old phrase “a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth can gets its boots on,” and that she has lived the experience Lively is going through “firsthand,” a reference to her defamation lawsuit against her former partner, Johnny Depp. “Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on.’ I saw this firsthand and up close.
It’s as horrifying as it is destructive,” said Heard. Heard’s case against Depp gained worldwide notoriety in 2022, and garnered opinions from any and everyone on the internet.
Fans of both Heard and Depp’s were viciously defending either online, and following a jury unanimously finding that Heard had defamed Depp and awarding Depp $5 million in punitive damages and $10 million in compensatory damages, the actress called the decision a wrong one, and one that “sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated.” In the case of Lively and Baldoni, this past week, Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni alleging him of sexual harassment and of coordinating an effort to destroy her reputation.
In Lively’s claims, she states that things got so bad during filming that an all-hands-on-deck meeting was called due to her claims of a hostile work environment.