Why Amber Heard is revealing the birth of her daughter Oonagh Paige now

The 'Justice League' star says she wanted to become a mom 'on my own terms'

Amber Heard says her daughter Oonagh Paige Heard was born on April, 2021.

Amber Heard says she has become a mom and did it "on my own terms", as a single parent.

In an Instagram post, the actor said she welcomed daughter Oonagh Paige Heard on April 8. A photo of Heard with the baby nestled against her accompanied Thursday's announcement.

"I now appreciate how radical it is for us as women to think about one of the most fundamental parts of our destinies in this way," Heard said in the post. "I hope we arrive at a point in which it's normalised to not want a ring in order to have a crib.''

She wrote that "a part of me wants to uphold that my private life is none of anyone's business," but said the nature of her job "compels me to take control of this" by revealing the birth.

"My daughter was born on April 8, 2021. Her name is Oonagh Paige Heard. She’s the beginning of the rest of my life," Heard said.

The actor has been facing a tumultuous period, with her 2015 to 2017 marriage to Johnny Depp involving a spate of legal actions.

Last year, Depp lost a libel case against a British newspaper that accused him of domestic violence, with a judge ruling the allegations were "substantially correct". In March, a British court refused Depp permission to appeal the ruling that he assaulted Heard, saying his attempt to overturn the decision had "no real prospect of success".

Depp is also suing Heard for $50 million in Virginia over a Washington Post op-ed essay that she wrote about domestic violence.

Heard's story was titled: "Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change."

"Two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture's wrath for women who speak out," Heard wrote for the Post. "Friends and advisers told me I would never again work as an actress – that I would be blacklisted. A movie I was attached to recast my role. I had just shot a two-year campaign as the face of a global fashion brand, and the company dropped me. Questions arose as to whether I would be able to keep my role of Mera in the movies Justice League and Aquaman.

"I want to ensure that women who come forward to talk about violence receive more support. We are electing representatives who know how deeply we care about these issues," the actress went on to say. "We can work together to demand changes to laws and rules and social norms – and to right the imbalances that have shaped our lives."

In the lawsuit, Depp, 55, claimed he has suffered financial losses because of the accusations, including being dropped from his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

The trial in that case was recently delayed until April 2022.