Amber Heard abruptly sacks PR team ahead of testimony

As Johnny Depp fans continue to savage Amber Heard amid the couple’s bitter court battle, Heard made a bold move – now we know why.

Actress Amber Heard has been so upset with the coverage she’s getting amid her court battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp — she abruptly switched to a new public relations team ahead of her highly-anticipated testimony next week.

The Aquaman star ditched crisis PR firm Precision Strategies last week, after getting frustrated with the press she’s received since the bombshell defamation trial kicked off last month, the New York Post reports.

“She doesn’t like bad headlines,” one source said.

Another source said Heard, 36, was “frustrated with her story not being told effectively.”

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Johnny Depp seems to have charmed fans during the trial to far. Picture: AFP.

Meanwhile, the internet has turned on Heard. Picture: AFP.

The actress — who is expected to take the stand in Fairfax, Virginia, as soon as Tuesday — now has consulting firm Shane Communications on retainer, sources said.

The switch-up came after several brutal days of testimony from Depp’s witnesses and a fiery social media mob turning against Heard.

Her new PR team has experience working against Depp in his failed 2017 lawsuit against his former business managers, The Management Group, and helped highlight its cross-complaint alleging the Pirates of the Caribbean star needed to hire a shrink for his “compulsive spending” habit of $2 million per month.

Heard’s new PR team has faced Depp in court before. Picture: AFP.

Still, communications experts told The Post Heard’s new flacks have an uphill battle ahead of them.

“After years of narrative building you can’t change the public’s opinion in the three weeks when someone is suing you in a case,” a crisis management PR insider said.

Ex-Pete Buttigieg campaign maven Lis Smith added: “It’s crazy to change teams in the middle of a trial like this because you don’t like the headlines.”

She said that Heard’s ex-firm Precision Strategies, which was co-founded by former Obama adviser and deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter, is “one of the best crisis firms” — “but they can’t rewrite the history of what’s happened.”

Communications experts say switching PR teams this far into a trial is “crazy”. Picture: AFP.

Depp, 58, is suing Heard for $50 million, claiming his ex-wife defamed him in a 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post where she discussed being a victim of domestic violence. He had filed a similar lawsuit in the UK, against The Sun, and lost.

The actor — who denies Heard’s claims of abuse, including that he sexually assaulted her — was not named in the essay at the centre of the ongoing trial, but he claims it clearly referenced him and ruined his career, damaged his reputation and cost him tens of millions of dollars.

Heard has never wanted cameras in the courtroom in the first place, but Depp’s team won the fight to have the entirety of the trial testimony live-streamed, meaning neither team could cherrypick what information made its way out of the courtroom.

Precision Strategies, Shane Communications and reps for Depp declined to comment.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and is reproduced here with permission