‘I’m really proud to be Brittany Higgins’: former Liberal staffer reveals why she didn’t change her name | Australian politics
Brittany Higgins has decided not to change her name when she gets married in 2024 because she is proud to be former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, she said in Silenced, a documentary about violence against women that opened the Sydney film festival.
“I had the opportunity to change my name when I got married, but I didn’t because I’m really proud of being Brittany Higgins,” she said in a highly emotional interview in the film. “I hope this is just a footnote in my story and no longer the main topic.”
Higgins walked the red carpet on Wednesday night alongside Australian lawyer Jennifer Robinson, who is representing Amber Heard in her defamation lawsuit filed by her ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Robinson’s How Many More Women? Heard also stars in the movie adapted from her book.
The name “Brittany Higgins” has rarely left the headlines since 2021, when Higgins told the media she was raped by a colleague in a minister’s chair in Parliament House two years ago.
The rape allegation against Bruce Lehrmann led to his trial in the ACT, but the trial was canceled due to juror misconduct. He denied the allegations.
ACT prosecutor Shane Drumgold dropped the case after seeking medical advice regarding Higgins.
Lehrmann later sued Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over the story. He lost the case and was found by the federal court on the balance of probabilities to have raped Higgins.
But media scrutiny of Higgins has not abated.
Australian director Selina Miles’ film argues that libel lawsuits around the world are being used to silence women and the media from speaking about and reporting on gender-based violence.
Higgins tells the filmmakers how she felt when she appeared in court in the ACT to give evidence in Lehrmann’s rape trial.
“I had heard the process was ugly and I knew it was going to suck,” Higgins said. “They’re going to take every piece of data you have. Your diaries. My counseling records. My doctors’ visits. Everything. It’s so frustrating and so stressful to prepare for this process every morning, to wear clothes that make you look, quote-unquote, rape-prone, but also make you look respectable.”
In the documentary, which premiered at Sundance, Higgins talks about the damage caused by multiple cases and the media attention on her mental health.
“There was a moment when it almost took my life because I didn’t want to do it anymore,” he said of the ACT criminal case.
“The police intervened by chance”
After she fled the country with her husband David Sharaz in 2023, the media pursued her in France. “We were not aware of the extent to which we were being followed,” said Higgins, whose images showed journalists wandering around the property.
“There was a line of journalists waiting for me to leave the house,” Higgins said. “I didn’t feel physically safe. There were threats to kill my dog.”
Lehrmann lost his last legal recourse to challenge his unsuccessful defamation case against Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson after the high court dismissed the case in April 2024.
“It’s going to take a while before you feel completely okay again,” Higgins said as she held her son in her arms in a scene from the movie. “But we’re getting there.”
