Johnny Depp has opened up with rare remarks about his relationship with Amber Heard and the high-profile trial that captivated global attention.
The pair first met in 2009 while working together on the film The Rum Diary, though their romantic relationship is believed to have begun in late 2011 or early 2012. They got engaged in January 2014 and were married by February 2015.
However, their marriage was short-lived, ending in separation just a year later in 2016 — though the legal battles between them were far from over.
In 2018, Heard published an op-ed in The Washington Post, in which she claimed to be a survivor of domestic abuse. The article sparked a lengthy and widely publicized court case between the two former spouses.
The trial played out in the public eye (JIM WATSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The Pirates of the Caribbean star wasn’t explicitly named in the piece. However, Depp brought a defamation case against Heard in 2019, alleging that his ex-wife had claimed that he’d ‘perpetrated domestic violence against her’, calling it ‘categorically and demonstrably false’ (via The Independent).
Heard then counter-sued against Depp to $100 million, adding even further media coverage to the trial.
Ultimately, in 2022, a jury found in favour of both Depp’s original suit, awarding Depp $10.35 million in damages, while Heard received $2 million after winning one of her three counter-claims against her ex.
Some three years later, Depp has been speaking to The Sunday Times about his relationship with Heard.
“If you’re a sucker like I am, sometimes you look in a person’s eye and see some sadness, some lonely thing and you feel you can help that person,” the actor said.
“But no good deed goes unpunished, because there are those who, when you try to love and help them, will start to give you an understanding of what that malaise, that perturbance was in their eyes. It manifests itself in other ways.
“And the interesting thing is that it is merely a sliver of my life I have chosen to explore.”
The Pirates of the Caribbean actor even spoke about the trial during his discussion with The Sunday Times.
The 62-year-old said: “Look, it had gone far enough. I knew I’d have to semi-eviscerate myself. Everyone was saying, ‘It’ll go away!’ But I can’t trust that. What will go away? The fiction pawned around the f****** globe? No, it won’t.
Johnny Depp has been speaking about his relationship with Amber Heard (Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
“If I don’t try to represent the truth, it will be like I’ve actually committed the acts I am accused of. And my kids will have to live with it. Their kids. Kids that I’ve met in hospitals.
“So the night before the trial in Virginia, I didn’t feel nervous. If you don’t have to memorize lines, if you’re just speaking the truth? Roll the dice.
Depp said that while he knew none of it ‘was going to be easy’, he didn’t care.
“I’ll fight until the bitter f**king end.’ And if I end up pumping gas? That’s all right. I’ve done that before,” he added.
Depp went on to say that he was a ‘crash test dummy’ for the MeToo movement.
“And I sponged it, took it all in. And so I wanted from the hundreds of people I’ve met in that industry to see who was playing it safe,” he said.