Reader TTS

EXPLORE MORE Some onlookers present in the courtroom during the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial have gone to great lengths to secure a front-row seat. Fans told People magazine they camped

out in their cars outside the Fairfax, Virginia, courthouse and even spent up to $30,000 on travel expenses to wait to get in. Hordes of eager enthusiasts revealed they arrive in the wee

hours of the morning to secure wristbands that grant access into the courtroom each day to watch the A-listers’ testimonies. “I’ve never been to a public trial before. I’ve never stayed up

overnight for anything in line, and I came at 12:45 a.m.,” Sabrina Harrison of Madison, Wisconsin, told People. “I’ve never done something like this in my 46 years of life.” Sharon Smith,

52, told People she crossed the ocean to see the trial. Fresh out of a 12-year relationship in Britain, Smith packed her things into a storage unit and flew to Virginia when the trial

started in April. During breaks, she travels to Los Angeles, then comes back when it resumes. “I’ve been coming back and forth from LA, so you’re looking at $600 to $700 each time, 10 hours

of your life in the air,” she said. “Hotel, food, drinks [cost] about $10,000.” Smith arrives at the courthouse at 1 a.m. every day to land a front-row seat to the high-profile defamation

trial. One morning, in particular, she got soaked in a rainstorm. When asked if she was there for Depp or Heard, she replied: “I’m getting wet for Johnny.” “I don’t know. It came in my head

and then out my mouth,” she told People. Currently, the courtroom is her home – at least for now. After the trial ends, Smith isn’t so sure where she’ll end up. “I’m sort of in between

Liverpool, London and Leeds,” she said, adding that her family thinks she’s having a “midlife crisis.” “I’m having fun,” she said. “People keep saying, ‘Are you OK? Are you really OK?’ And

I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ “ Ivan De Boer, 59, used a year’s worth of paid vacation time to travel from Los Angeles to the trial, spending $30,000 on her expenses so far. “I took my whole

year’s vacation so I could be here for Johnny,” she said. “I’m the same age as Johnny. I’m single, so I do what I want to, basically.” Despite dropping all that cash, she has “no regrets.”

“I’d regret it more if I wasn’t here,” she said. Emily, a 26-year-old from Arlington, Virginia, joined the sea of supporters bright and early on May 4 at 2 a.m. to ensure she was one of the

first 100 people on line. “My friends think I’m insane for doing it but I think it’s a historic trial and I think it’s really interesting that it’s taking place in northern Virginia,” she

said. “Someone got here last night [at 9 p.m.] to get the first spot.” People slept in their cars to save money while simultaneously getting the best spot on line. “It is not totally

convenient to be in Virginia for most of the week, every week, but I was sleeping in my car when I came here,” said 33-year-old Jarva from Brooklyn. “And since then, I’ve been staying at the

Ritz with my friends. I stayed in my other friend’s apartment, and I’ll stay in my car if I need to. It’s worth it.” Angela Metha, a 40-year-old doctor from Fairfax, Virginia, said she made

it to the trial five times in person, making special arrangements that made her presence possible. “I came and stood in line today at 4 a.m. Picked up my mother-in-law so she can sleep with

the kids; they’re 4 and 6. Stood in line, got my pass, then went back home at 7:30 a.m. Got them ready for school, dropped them off, came back. And then I’ve been working extra shifts so I

can take days off to come here,” she told People. Like Smith, Metha’s family thinks she’s “nuts,” especially after asking her husband to spend their 10-year wedding anniversary at the trial

by joining her. “I told him, ‘As part of our present, can you come with me?’ And he’s like, ‘Hell no,’ ” she said, despite the fact, her husband “loves Johnny Depp.” “He just doesn’t

understand people getting up in the middle of the night, standing in line to come and see him. But it’s exhilarating seeing this in person.” Jennifer, a 43-year-old from Rome, NY, waited on

line at 1 a.m. to enter the courtroom, admitting to People that her shopping spree for perfect outfits cost her $2,200. “As a person who has been through domestic violence herself, it just

needed to be something that we did. I’ve been here since the start of the trial,” she said. “I’m self-employed, so it was very flexible.” Depp is suing Heard, 36, for defamation to the tune

of $50 million after she penned a 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post dubbing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” While Depp wasn’t named, he claims Heard decimated his

reputation and career and cost him millions of dollars in work. The trial is in a recess until May 16, when the testimony will resume at 9:30 a.m.