Why is Johnny Depp in court?
Why is Johnny Depp in court? The former spouses married in February 2015 after meeting on the set of The Rum Diaryin 2009. They filed for divorce in May 2016, with Heard accusing Depp of domestic violence. Depp has steadfastly and vehemently denied all allegations of violence against the actress. In December 2018, Heard penned an op-ed for The Washington Post in which she recounted her alleged experiences with domestic abuse and sexual violence without ever naming Depp. Depp is suing Heard for $50 million for defamation from the editorial. He is suing Heard in the state of Virginia, where The Washington Post is physically published. Heard is countersuing for $100 million, also for defamation, because Depp’s attorney, Adam Waldman, called her abuse allegations against the Edward Scissorhandsstar a “hoax.” In 2018, before Heard’s editorial was published, Depp sued News Group Newspapers LTD in the U.K. for libel after The Sun ran an article with a headline calling Depp a “Wife Beater.” Depp’s lawsuit against the publisher was dismissed after a judge deemed the majority of the abuse claims “substantially true,” and Depp was denied an appeal.
Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard Trial Revelations
Amber Heard’s attorneys accused Johnny Depp of sexual violence against the Aquaman star.
In an opening statement to the court, Heard’s attorney Ben Rottenborn alleged, “You will hear in the most graphic and horrifying terms about the violence that she suffered. You’ll hear that straight from her. She will get on the stand and she will tell you that. It happened.” A representative for Depp vehemently denied the allegations. “This follows a pattern of her elaborate, erroneous claims which have continued to change and evolve over time for the purpose of Hollywood shock value of which Amber has mastered and used to exploit a serious social movement,” the rep told E! Newsin a statement.
Johnny Depp’s sister denied that the actor was a “violent” drug addict, but admitted she was concerned about his substance abuse.
Depp’s older sister and personal manager, Christi Dembrowski, first testified on April 13, 2022, that she didn’t believe Depp was addicted to drugs, nor that he was ever violent towards Heard. Under cross-examination, however, Dembrowski admitted (via The Guardian) that she had concerns about a prescription pain medication that Depp had been using. Dembrowski also admitted to writing a text message to Heard (which was in court evidence), “I love him so much, but he needs help.” In another message following an alleged fight in Australia, Dembrowski reportedly told Heard to tell Depp, “I’m scared and I can’t deal” as a means of coping with their toxic relationship. Dembrowski acknowledged that Heard and Depp “were arguing all the time.” Depp reportedly was addicted to opiates and struggled to detox from the drugs during his marriage to Heard.
Johnny Depp’s sister claimed that the actor struggled to keep up with career demands his agent placed on him.
Heard’s legal team alleged that Depp was perpetually late to work on sets of his movies, including the fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbeanfranchise, which was filmed in Australia. Dembrowski claimed that Depp was spread thin professionally because his former agent kept booking him for so many projects in order to line his own pockets with his commission fees.
Johnny Depp’s mother was abusive when he was a child.
Dembrowski and Depp each separately recalled their abusive upbringings at the hands of their late mother, Betty Sue Palmer. “Really early on as a young child, none of what was happening in our home felt good,” Dembrowski said, noting that Palmer would scream, throw things at and strike her and Depp. “And so, as I got older, both Johnny and I actually, we decided that once we left, once we had our own home, we were never going to repeat, ever, anything similar in any way to our childhood. We were gonna do it [differently].” She also said that Depp never fought back against Palmer, instead often opting to hide in his bedroom. Depp recalled (via PEOPLE), “The verbal abuse, the psychological abuse, was almost worse than the beatings. The beatings were just physical pain. The physical pain, you learn to deal with. You learn to accept it. You learn to deal with it.” He described Palmer as throwing things, including a telephone, a high-heeled shoe and an ashtray; as well as striking him and his sister in the head. He described his father as a quiet, mild-mannered and kind. “When Betty Sue, my mother, would go off on a tangent toward my father—and of course, in front of the kids, it [didn ’t] matter to her,” he said. “He, amazingly, remained very stoic and never, as she was rationing him with horrible things, he stood there and just looked at her while she delivered the pain, and he swallowed it. He took it.”
Amber Heard’s friend Eve Barlow was banned from the trial.
Heard’s close friend, journalist Eve Barlow, was thrown out of the courtroom and permanently barred from appearing during the trial. Barlow had been sitting with Heard and the actress’ legal team in the front row of the courtroom and showed Heard’s attorneys a social media post that one of Depp’s witnesses, Gina Deuters, posted in support of the Donnie Brasco star. Barlow, however, omitted the timestamp from the post, which would have indicated that the post was from 2021 during Depp’s lawsuit against The Sun. In addition to omitting that fact, Barlow was also allegedly texting and live-tweeting the trial from the courtroom. “She was tweeting live from my courtroom … and I know the deputies took her out because she was texting,” Judge Penney Azcarate said, per court transcripts. “That’s against the court order. Ms. Barlow is not coming back into the courtroom during this trial.”
Johnny Depp’s witness Gina Deuters was dismissed from the trial for admittedly watching clips of the trial online.
Though Barlow’s revelation of Deuters’ social media activity was misleading, when Judge Azcarate asked Deuters if she was following the news of the current trial or watching videos of it, Deuters admitted that she’d seen clips of the proceedings online. She was dismissed from the court and the jury was instructed to discount all of her testimony, which was stricken from the record.
Johnny Depp may or may not have cut off his own fingertip.
Depp somewhat famously lost the tip of his left middle finger in 2015 during his marriage to Heard, though the exact ways that it happened varied depending on who was recalling the incident. Depp’s team previously alleged that Heard threw a glass bottle of vodka at him which caused the injury, but during their videotaped depositions for the current defamation trial, his medical team had different recollections. Depp’s personal nurse, Debbie Lloyd, told the court that she heard different stories from different people about what exactly happened to his finger, noting, “I have heard that Amber threw a bottle of vodka at him. I have heard that he had slammed it with a phone.” Depp’s personal physician, Dr. David Kipper, said in his deposition that Depp told him he’d cut off his fingertip himself and that Depp also told the emergency room doctor at the time that he’d cut off his own fingertip with a knife. Dr. Kipper also claimed that a chef found Depp’s severed fingertip in the kitchen of Depp’s home and that he’d personally noticed broken glass in the kitchen and “blood around the home,” but didn’t see any injuries on Heard at the time. In Depp’s own testimony, however, he once more accused Heard of throwing two glass vodka bottles at him, saying the second one she allegedly hurled was the one that caused the injury. He said he was “looking at [his] bones sticking out” and that the amount of blood coming from his fingertip was “like Vesuvius,” referencing the volcano that destroyed ancient Pompeii (though Vesuvius’ eruption was mostly ash and gas, not lava).
Johnny Depp was accused of defacing a painting by drawing a penis on it—with his severed fingertip.
After Depp’s fingertip was severed (whether by himself or from a vodka bottle he says Heard hurled at him), he was accused of using the fingertip to draw and write messages in blood and paint around the home he shared with the Aquaman actress. When asked about it, Depp replied, “I don’t know about that. I don’t remember drawing a penis on a painting … Drawing a penis on a painting was not the first thing on my mind.” When pressed, he later responded, “I had messages to write, reminders … Given that I had written some messages on the bathroom mirror and then Ms. Heard added to them, it’s also not impossible Ms. Heard may have drawn a penis on a painting somewhere.” Depp recalled writing reminder of “lies” Heard allegedly told him throughout their marriage. He said of the aftermath of the cut, “I don’t know what a nervous breakdown feels like, but that’s probably the closest that I’ve ever been.”
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s couples therapist said they engaged in “mutual abuse.”
During a pre-taped deposition, Depp and Heard’s onetime marriage counselor, Dr. Laurel Anderson, alleged that the couple engaged in “mutual abuse” throughout their relationship. When asked specifically if Depp was violent toward Heard, Anderson said, “Yes, you’re right. He had been well-controlled, I think, for almost, I don’t know, 20, 30 years. Both were victims of abuse in their homes, but I thought he had been well-controlled for decades. And then with Ms. Heard, he was triggered, and they engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse.” Anderson said she observed “multiple small bruises” on Heard’s face on at least one in-person meeting and claimed that Heard would sometimes instigate physical altercations with Depp in an effort to keep him from leaving her. Explaining that “abandonment was [Heard’s] worst nightmare,” Anderson claimed, “If [Depp] were going to leave her to deescalate the fight, she would strike him to keep him there because she would rather be in a fight than have him leave.” Anderson claimed that Heard told her that it was “a point of pride to her if she felt disrespected to initiate a fight.”
Johnny Depp says he took the stand to speak his truth and defend his family.
Taking the stand himself on April 19, 2022, Depp told the court, “I felt it my responsibility to stand up not only for myself in my instance, but stand up for my children who at the time were 14 and 16. They were in high school, and I thought it was diabolical that my children would have to go to school and have their friends or people in school approach them with the infamous PEOPLEmagazine cover with Miss Heard with a dark bruise on her face.” Depp shares son Jack, now 20, and daughter Lily-Rose Depp, now 22, with former partner Vanessa Paradis. In his testimony, Depp denied striking Heard “in any way” and swore he was never violent towards any woman in his entire life. Depp went on to say he never reached the point of striking Heard “in any way” nor has he ever struck any woman in his life. “It’s been six years of trying times. It’s really strange when one day you’re Cinderella so to speak, and in 0.6 seconds you’re Quasimodo,” he said. “And I didn’t deserve that, nor did my children, nor did the people who believed in me for all these years. I didn’t want anybody to believe that I had done them wrong or that I had lied to them or that I was a fraud.”
Johnny Depp fell in love with Amber Heard while they were both still in other relationships, and things got ugly when their routines were disrupted.
Depp admitted on his first day on the stand that he felt a spark with Heard while they were filming The Rum Diary, during which he was still with Paradis and Heard was in a relationship with Tasya Van Ree. He said they didn’t pursue a relationship until later and that the romance started beautifully. “It was as if she was too good to be true. She was attentive. She was loving. She was smart. She was kind. She was funny. She was understanding,” he recalled, adding that they bonded over their mutual love of blues music and books. Depp alleged that it wasn’t until their routines were broken that Heard showed animosity towards him. Depp claimed that Heard would usually help him take off his boots when he got home, and when he didn’t have her do so one day, she lashed out; Depp also said that Heard would often get upset if he didn’t go to bed at the same time as her. He said that about 18 months into the relationship, “It was as if she had become another person almost … Things just started to change. Things started to reveal themselves.”
Johnny Depp began using drugs when he was just 11 years old.
Depp recalled during his testimony on April 19, 2022, that he began abusing drugs when he was a child. Depp said that he when he got his mother her “nerve pills,” he’d occasionally slip one himself. “I’d done pretty much all the drugs I was aware of by the time I was 15 years old,” Depp confessed, adding, “It’s never been for the party effect. It’s been for trying to numb the things inside that can plague someone who has experienced trauma.” He alleged that Heard exaggerated his drug use and his behavior when he was under the influence of substances, telling the jury, “I think it was an easy target for her to hit. I am not some maniac who needs to be high or loaded all the time.” He also said that he detoxed from opioids while they were married.
Johnny Depp admitted that sent vile texts to and about Amber Heard.
Depp confirmed that he sent objectively egregious texts about Heard, including one that said he had hoped her “rotting corpse is decomposing in the f**king trunk of a Honda Civic.” Depp said he was embarrassed by his “unfortunate words” and that he knows using that sort of language “cannot continue.” He explained, “Sometimes pain has to be dealt with with humor, and sometimes dark humor. I grew up watching Monty Python … I tend to be quite expressive in my writing.”
Johnny Depp said his marriage to Amber Heard was akin to his abusive childhood.
During his testimony on April 20, 2022, Depp said that he believed his childhood trauma was what emotionally kept him in his marriage to Heard, even when it grew abusive. He alleged that Heard had tremendous contempt for him and frequently “berated” him with “demeaning” language. “If there’s a dialogue between two people, both people need to speak. But there was no way to fit a word in. It was a sort of rapid-fire, endless parade of insults,” Depp said, alleging that he “was not allowed to be right and not allowed to have a voice.” He added, “You start to slowly realize that you are in a relationship with your mother, in a sense. And I know that sounds perverse and obtuse, but the fact is, some people search for weaknesses in people.” He said he believed he stayed in the marriage because his father didn’t leave his abusive mother for several years, and admitted that he also wanted to stick it out in part because he’d lost his relationship with Paradis and didn’t want to fail or to hurt anyone.
Johnny Depp said Amber Heard threatened suicide during their relationship.
Depp recalled in his April 20, 2022, testimony that his mother attempted suicide after his father left the family. He also alleged that Heard would threaten to end her own life if he left her, even just for a few hours. He claimed the actress would scream and cry “to high heavens” that she couldn’t live without him and wanted to kill herself if he left her.
Johnny Depp accused Amber Heard of lying about him breaking her nose.
Depp alleged that Heard accused him of headbutting her and breaking her nose, showing him a tissue covered in a red substance to drive her point home. Depp said their heads did collide but that it was an accident, and claimed that when he took the tissue out of the trash later to examine it, he found no blood, but a splash of red nail polish, on it.
Johnny Depp accused Amber Heard of defecating in their bed after a fight.
Heard had a 30th birthday party in April 2016, and Depp alleges that he and Heard got into a fight afterward. He left their shared penthouse, but when he returned to pick up his things, he claims that his security advised him not to go inside and showed him a photo of feces on the bed he shared with the actress. “My initial response to that was, I mean I laughed,” Depp recalled on the stand on April 20, 2022. “It was so outside, it was so bizarre and so grotesque that I could only laugh.” Heard’s legal team previously denied the allegations, saying Depp and his team fabricated the accusation to humiliate her.
Amber Heard admits to hitting Johnny Depp and slams his parenting in an audio recording.
In an audio recording played for the court, Heard admits to striking Depp and tells the actor to stop being a “fking baby.” Heard tells Depp in the recording, “I didn’t punch you. I’m sorry I didn’t hit you across the face in a proper slap … but I was hitting you. Babe, you’re not punched.” When Depp disagrees and said she did punch him, Heard says, “I did not fking deck you … You’re fine. I did not hurt you. I did not punch you. I was hitting you … I’m not sitting here bhing about it, am I? You are … You’re a fking baby. Grow the f*k up Johnny.” Heard also told Depp in an audio recording that his children’s stepfather (Paradis’ husband, Samuel Benchetrit) was more of a “man” than Depp.
Johnny Depp learned he was fired from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise in the news.
Depp said that Heard’s abuse allegations cost him work, most notably as Captain Jack Sparrow in the sixth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean. Depp alleged (via Variety) that he learned he was fired from the brand in a news report. “I wasn’t aware of that, but it doesn’t surprise me. Two years had gone by of constant worldwide talk about me being this wife-beater, so I’m sure that Disney was trying to cut ties to be safe,” he recalled. “The #MeToo movement was in full swing at that point.” He added that Disney “didn’t remove my character from the rides. They didn’t stop selling dolls of Captain Jack Sparrow. They didn’t stop selling anything. They just didn’t want there to be something trailing behind me that they’d find.” Of Heard’s op-ed, Depp said, “I would be a real simpleton to not think that there was an effect on my career based on Ms. Heard’s words, whether they mentioned my name or not.”
Johnny Depp slammed ex Vanessa Paradis in an email to Elton John.
In an email sent to singer and friend Elton John, Depp called his Paradis a “French extortionist” and a “c**t.” He also accused Paradis of trying to “brainwash” their children against Heard.
Johnny Depp allegedly used drugs with Paul Bettany and Marilyn Manson—the latter of whom is also accused of domestic and sexual violence.
During cross-examination on April 21, 2022, Depp was asked about his friendships with Paul Bettanyand Marilyn Manson. Depp confirmed that he’d texted Bettany in jest about killing Heard and that he and Bettany and had used drugs together “at times.” As far as Manson (whose ex Evan Rachel Woodaccused him of sexual and domestic abuse), Depp said, “We drank together. We’ve had cocaine together maybe a couple of times.” When asked if he and Manson ever used pills together, Depp chuckled slightly and replied, “I once gave Marilyn Manson a pill so that he would stop talking so much.”
Johnny Depp believed Amber Heard was having an affair with James Franco.
Heard’s attorney played audio recordings of Depp telling the actress, who starred with James Francoin The Pineapple Expressand The Adderall Diaries, “I become irrational when you’re doing movies. I become jealous and f**king weird and we fight a lot more.” When asked if he grew insecure when Heard filmed or went out with others, Depp admitted that he sometimes was.
Amber Heard secretly filmed Johnny Depp during an argument in their kitchen.
Heard surreptitiously filmed Depp during an argument in which he slammed and hit cabinets and pours himself wine and throws a glass. Heard says in the clip, “You’re smashing s**t.” When asked about the footage, Depp replied, “I did assault a couple of cabinets but I did not touch Miss Heard … I did not try to intimidate Miss Heard. If she was intimidated, why was she filming? If she was scared to death, why didn’t she leave?” You can view some of the video below, but proceed with caution: It contains foul language and may be triggering.
Amber Heard accused Johnny Depp of putting cigarettes out on her.
In audio played during court on April 25, 2022, Heard tells Depp to “put [his] cigarettes out on someone else.” In another recording, he tells Heard that if he doesn’t walk away during an argument, “it’ll be a bloodbath.” In a third, she accuses Depp of “getting a stab in” while she was “pouring [her] heart out” to the actor and hitting her while she was crying.
The judge threatened to throw some Johnny Depp fans out of the courtroom.
When asked what movies he’s been in, Depp grew somewhat flustered, telling the court, “I’m so pathetic when it comes to knowing what movies I’ve done. I’m sorry. I just, I don’t watch them. I feel better not watching them. What was the question again?” When several Depp fans in the courtroom guffawed at the star’s remark, Judge Azcarate warned them, “Order in the court or I will have you removed. Understood? Thank you.”
Johnny Depp said Amber Heard was threatened by his friendship with Paul Bettany.
Depp alleged in his testimony that Heard detested WandaVisionstar Paul Bettanyand had even made the British actor’s son cry. “Ms. Heard despised Mr. Bettany, mainly because we had become such close friends, and for her, he was a threat and would take me away from her, with regard to if Paul Bettany were getting the attention from me, that was a show-stopper,” Depp said on the stand (via PEOPLE). “It would cause all kinds of unpleasantries.” Depp said that in one instance, Heard talked over Bettany during a debate over a meal, and it got uglier from there. “It started to get quite rude. She got mean and she got loud,” Depp said. Depp said that Bettany and wife Jennifer Connelly’s teenage son Kai began speaking about something he’d studied in school, and Heard was disrespectful to the point of driving the boy to tears. “He voiced his opinion, and Ms. Heard demeaned that young man to the point of where he burst into tears and walked away,” Depp recalled, adding that he later told her that her “behavior was unacceptable” and that she “had no right” to speak to his friends that way, telling her, “You cannot always be right. You should try being wrong sometime, because you might learn something.”
A psychologist hired by Johnny Depp’s legal team said Amber Heard shows signs of borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder—and that Heard may have exaggerated her claims of having PTSD.
Dr. Shannon Curry took the stand on April 26, 2022, telling the court that after 12 hours evaluating Heard, “The results of Ms. Heard’s evaluation supported two diagnoses: borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder.” She added that Heard didn’t appear to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alleged that Heard may have exaggerated her claims of PTSD symptomology. Dr. Curry noted, however, “Just because somebody doesn’t have PTSD doesn’t mean that they weren’t harmed psychologically by whatever is being alleged—in this case, Ms. Heard is alleging that she was psychologically harmed and that she suffered PTSD because of abuse that she alleges occurred by Mr. Depp.”
Amber Heard may not have loved Elon Musk.
Heard dated billionaire Elon Muskafter her split from Depp in 2016. Texts revealed in court between Heard and her and Depp’s former agent, Christian Carino, indicated that Heard never actually was in love with Musk and was just “filling space.” “I hate that yet again a man lets me fall on the spikes by myself. … Meaning, they are mad at me for leaving them and put things like this out there,” Heard reportedly wrote to Carino (via PEOPLE). Carino responded, “You could avoid all this if you stopped dating über-famous people. You can be with a big man who isn’t famous.” A year after she and Musk called it quits, Heard told The Hollywood Reporter, “Elon and I had a beautiful relationship, and we have a beautiful friendship now, one that was based on our core values. Intellectual curiosity, ideas and conversation, a shared love for science. We just bonded on a lot of things that speak to who I am on the inside. I have so much respect for him.” Depp previously accused Heard of having an affair with Musk within the first month of his marriage to the bombshell. Musk denied it through his rep, who said in a statement at the time, “Elon and Amber didn’t start seeing each other until May 2016, and even then it was infrequent. Their relationship didn’t become romantic until some time later.”
Amber Heard asked to meet with Johnny Depp after their split.
Carino testified that Heard asked him to coordinate a meeting between her and Depp after they’d filed for divorce. The meeting reportedly took place in July 2016, two months after Heard accused Depp of domestic violence and obtained a restraining order against the actor. In his own testimony on the stand, Depp said that the meeting “confused” him and that it was where the audio clip of him threatening to cut himself and asking Heard to cut him was recording. Carino also claimed that Heard asked him to deliver letters from her to Depp, with one text from Heard in evidence reading, “I don’t know how or where to start. There’s no way to begin. … Finally I am single, clear in my heart and mind. I just want him to know I love him and that I am sorry.” Carino said he believed Heard wanted to reconcile with Depp.
Amber Heard owes the ACLU half the donations she pledged—even after Elon Musk and Johnny Depp made some of the payments for her.
During the Depp trial on Thursday, April 29, 2022, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) general counsel and chief operating officer Terence Dougherty testified that the organization only received a total of $1.3 million in donations made in Heard’s name; Heard pledged $3.5 million of her $7 million divorce settlement to the ACLU. Dougherty claimed that the ACLU had received four installments of Heard’s pledge, with Heard donating $350,000 herself in August 2016. According to Dougherty, Depp donated $100,000 in Heard’s name; another $350,000 donation in her name came from a Fidelity donor-advised fund; and $500,000 in Heard’s name came from a Vanguard donor-advised fund. Dougherty said he believed that Musk was behind the $500,000 payment from the Vanguard fund.
The ACLU helped Amber Heard write the Washington Post op-ed at the center of Depp’s defamation suit against her.
During his videotaped deposition, Dougherty testified that ACLU staff helped Heard write the Washington Post essay about surviving sexual violence and domestic abuse. He noted that the staffers aiding and editing Heard’s essay were conscious to remove any references that were too closely identifying her relationship with Depp.
Amber Heard may have had PTSD as a result of intimate partner violence.
A psychologist for Heard’s side testified that Heard had PTSD from suffering from domestic violence, allegedly at the hands of Depp.
Amber Heard’s nurse testified that the actress suffered from anxiety and addiction.
Heard’s private nurse Erin Falati said on the stand of Heard, “I have a generalized memory of there being … jealous and anxiety issues, including mistrust within the relationship. I have a vague sense of those issues popping up throughout the years, but I wouldn’t say that was a constant theme.” She also said that addictions ran in Heard’s family and that Heard expressed some addiction issues with liquor and cocaine. Falati also reportedly said in her notes that Heard was “agitated” and “screaming” at times.
Johnny Depp lost out on a $22.5 million movie deal with Disney for Pirates of the Caribbean after Amber Heard accused him of domestic violence.
Expert witnesses for Depp, including a talent agent, manager and a Hollywood attorney, testified that Heard’s allegation, including her op-ed, hurt Depp’s bankability as a movie star and cost him work—including a $22.5 million payday from Disney to reprise his role of Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Johnny Depp allegedly performed a cavity search on Amber Heard for drugs.
Heard recalled that Depp allegedly performed a cavity search on her to find drugs that he thought she was hiding. She tearfully said that Depp ripped off her clothes and digitally penetrated her to find cocaine.
Amber Heard said Johnny Depp dangled their dog out of a window.
Heard recalled on the stand that Depp allegedly held their teacup yorkie Boo out of the window of a moving car. She said she eventually gently moved his arms back into the car but that everyone around them was nervous and that it felt like an “eerie moment.”
Amber Heard said Johnny Depp was the love of her life, but that his addiction and substance use turned him into “this other thing.”
Heard tearfully said that Depp was the “love her [her] life” and her “soulmate,” but that when he was using drugs and drinking, he became “this other thing” that terrified her. She said of his substance use, “Johnny on speed is very different from Johnny on opiates. And Johnny on opiates [is] very different from Johnny on Adderall, and Cocaine Johnny, which is very different from Quaaludes Johnny.” She recalled helping him clean up after himself when he’d vomited or defecated himself while high, and that their security detail often had to do the same. She recalled using MDMA with Depp on a flight, admitting it was “stupid” and that she was against him using other substances. “It’s a lovey drug,” she explained. “I had never known anyone to get violent on it.” “I looked at that man twice my age and I saw hope, I saw promise. I had so much hope,” she said through tears. “The whole thing, kids and growing old together—hope, if there was just this one thing he could do to change his life, which was to get clean and sober.” Next, learn about coercive control, a common form of domestic partner abuse.