Brittany Higgins has revealed she considered suicide during the ACT criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann, the man accused of raping her in Parliament House. The former Liberal staffer made the disclosure in Silenced, a documentary about violence against women that opened the Sydney Film Festival on Wednesday.
Higgins said she decided not to change her name when she married David Sharaz in 2024 because she is proud to be known as Brittany Higgins. 'Hopefully, this is just a footnote in my story and it's not the headliner any more,' she said in a highly emotional interview.
The documentary also features Amber Heard and is based on Australian barrister Jennifer Robinson's book How Many More Women? It argues that defamation cases are being used worldwide to silence women and the media from reporting on gender-based violence.
Higgins detailed the toll of the legal proceedings and media scrutiny. 'There was a point where I almost took my life, because I didn't want to do it any more,' she said. She also described feeling unsafe after being tracked down in France, with journalists waiting outside her home and threats made against her dog.
Lehrmann lost his defamation case against Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, with the High Court dismissing his final challenge in April 2024. Higgins now lives abroad with her husband and baby son, saying: 'It's going to take a while to fully feel OK again. But we're getting there.'
