“Do you know what else I remember? I remember a friend of mine texting me one night in 2019 that she had just met Amber Heard. Amber was working with a charity my friend was involved with. The night my friend met Amber, she ended up telling her my story. After I got that text, I called her, and she gave Amber the phone to talk to me. Amber didn’t just talk to me. She stayed on the phone for the better part of an hour, stepping away from the group of people she was with so she could listen to my story and offer me support and advice. Amber Heard, a celebrity, who regularly had to change her phone number, gave it to me, a stranger, so she could continue offering support. I have never forgotten her kindness. [...]
Amber’s support was life-changing for me. I am not exaggerating when I say that it could have been the end of my life if I hadn’t had support like that. In a lifetime of repeated trauma and poverty, my court case was my lowest point. In many ways, it felt more traumatic than my actual abuse. When I was being questioned on the stand, later in 2019, before Amber ever took the stand in the UK or in Virginia, I thought about her and the support she was giving me. Knowing I had that support, just a text away from someone so influential, so supportive, changed the course of that proceeding. I felt taller. I felt stronger. While Amber wasn’t in the courtroom, I still felt like she was with me, helping me speak out. It might seem like a small thing, just texting, but to me it was everything.”