Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
Shutterstock (2)While standing in the defamation case against him Amber HeardAnd Johnny Depp He addressed his ex-wife’s allegations of domestic violence.
“It’s been six years of hard times,” Depp, 58, said during witness testimony at the trial in Fairfax, Virginia on Tuesday, April 19. Seconds you Quasimodo. I did not deserve it, nor did my children, nor the people who believed in me all these years. I didn’t want any of these people to think that I had done them wrong, or lied to them, or that I was a fraud. I pride myself on honesty. “
The Kentucky native recalled the “total shock” he experienced after Heard, 35, claimed he had abused her. “I’ve never gotten to the point of hitting Mrs. Heard in any way, nor have I ever hit a woman in my life,” Depp continued, referring to Heard’s previous accusations as “outrageous” and “not based” on any truth. . “Since I knew there was no truth to it at all, I felt it was my responsibility to defend not only myself in this situation but my children, who at the time were aged 14 and 16.”
The Pirates of the Caribbean The star, who shares daughter Lily Rose, now 22, and son Jack, now 20, with the former Vanessa Paradishe explained that he hoped to “clear the record” because he “killed” him and that his reputation would be affected.
The Oscar nominee’s appearance in court comes one week after the start of his trial against Heard. The duo, who tied the knot in 2015, previously made headlines when Aquaman Najma filed for divorce after one year. Days later, Heard charged Depp with domestic violence and obtained a temporary restraining order against him.
The Alice in Wonderland The star’s representative denied the allegations in a statement at the time, saying, “Due to the brevity of this marriage and the latest and most tragic loss of his mother, Johnny will not respond to any of the lewd false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies about his personal life. We hope this short marriage will be resolved quickly.”
The former couple reached a settlement in August 2016 and their divorce was finalized five months later.
Heard and Depp continued to get involved in legal battles when the Golden Globe winner filed a defamation suit against a UK newspaper the sun For referring to him as a “wife beater” in a 2018 article (In November 2020, the Supreme Court of Justice ruled that The Sun’s article was not defamatory because Heard’s allegations were “largely true”).
In 2018, the Texas native wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post about her past history with abuse. Although she did not mention Depp’s name, the reference to a moment that occurred two years before publication was the basis of her ex-husband’s defamation lawsuit.
Ahead of the trial, Heard took to social media earlier this month to reflect on her past with Depp. “I never named it, I wrote about the price women pay for speaking out against men in power,” she wrote on Instagram before announcing the internet outage. “I keep paying that price, but hopefully, when this case is over, I can move on as well as Johnny. I have always kept my love for Johnny and it brings me so much pain to live the details of our past lives together from the world.”
If you or someone you know experiences domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
