Brittany Higgins has revealed why she kept her name after getting married in 2024, and it's not because she wanted to make it easier for journalists to Google her. In *Silenced*, a documentary about violence against women that opened the Sydney Film Festival, the former Liberal staffer said, 'When I got married I had this opportunity to change my name but I didn't because I'm really proud to be Brittany Higgins. Hopefully, this is just a footnote in my story and it's not the headliner any more.'
Higgins walked the red carpet Wednesday alongside Australian barrister Jennifer Robinson, who represented Amber Heard in her defamation case against ex-husband Johnny Depp. Heard also appears in the film, based on Robinson's book *How Many More Women?* - which, based on the title, is a lot.
Since 2021, when Higgins alleged she was raped by a colleague on a minister's couch in Parliament House in 2019, the name 'Brittany Higgins' has been about as quiet as a fireworks display in a library. Her allegation against Bruce Lehrmann led to a trial in the ACT that was aborted due to juror misconduct; Lehrmann denied the allegations. The ACT prosecutor Shane Drumgold dropped the case after receiving medical advice regarding Higgins. Lehrmann then sued Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over the story - and lost, with the federal court finding on the balance of probabilities that he did, in fact, rape Higgins.
But the media scrutiny didn't subside, because of course it didn't. Australian director Selina Miles' film argues that defamation cases are being used globally to silence women and media from reporting on gender-based violence - which is a bit like using a fire extinguisher to put out a bonfire while the arsonist is still holding a match.
Higgins describes the ordeal of giving evidence in Lehrmann's rape trial: 'They'll take every bit of data that you have. Your diaries. My counselling records. My doctors' visits. Everything. Getting ready for that process every morning, putting on clothes that make you look like someone who is rapeable, quote unquote, and yet someone who is also respectable, it's so nerve-wracking and so stressful.'
The Sundance-premiered documentary also covers the toll on her mental health: 'There was a point where I almost took my life, because I didn't want to do it anymore,' she said of the ACT criminal trial. After fleeing to France with her husband David Sharaz in 2023, the media tracked her down. 'We had a line of journos waiting for me to leave the house,' Higgins said. 'I physically didn't feel safe. There were threats to kill my dog.'
Lehrmann lost his last legal avenue to challenge his failed defamation case after the High Court dismissed his case in April 2024. Higgins, cradling her baby boy in the film, said, 'It's going to take a while to fully feel OK again. But we're getting there.'