Amber Heard welcomed a baby daughter earlier this year, the actress has revealed on social media.

Heard, 35, announced the news in an Instagram post to her 3.9 million followers on Thursday night.

The baby girl was born on 8 April and has been named Oonagh Paige Heard.

She was born via a surrogate, according to US showbiz website Page Six.

Heard wrote: "I'm so excited to share this news with you. Four years ago, I decided I wanted to have a child.

"I wanted to do it on my own terms. 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.

"I hope we arrive at a point in which it's normalized to not want a ring in order to have a crib.

"A part of me wants to uphold that my private life is none of anyone's business. I also get that the nature of my job compels me to take control of this.

"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, who has starred in films including Aquaman and Justice League - and The Rum Diary alongside ex-husband Johnny Depp - had not previously revealed she was expecting a child.

The name Oonagh is of Irish origin and comes from the word "uan", which means "lamb". It can also come from the Latin for "one" and is sometimes translated as "unity". And according to Irish folklore, Oonagh was "queen of the fairies".

The announcement comes almost five years after Heard's acrimonious split from Depp. The couple tied the knot in 2015 but divorced two years later.

Depp's libel claim against the publisher of The Sun newspaper was dismissed by Mr Justice Nichol following a three-week trial last July.

The High Court judge ruled a column in April 2018 branding Depp a "wife beater" was "substantially true".