Johnny Depp recently opened up in rare comments about his past relationship with Amber Heard. The 62-year-old actor, who recently surprised kids during a visit to a hospital in Spain, spoke to The Sunday Times about his troubled marriage and the intense 2022 defamation trial.
He did not hold back as he called himself a “sucker” when it came to love. He married Heard in 2015 after they met while filming The Rum Diary in 2011. However, by 2016, she filed for divorce, which was finalized in 2017, as cited by the Daily Mail report.
During the 2022 trial, which ended in June, Depp received major support from fans inside and outside the courthouse in Fairfax County, Virginia. At one point, he was asked how it felt to see the public turn against Heard– someone he once loved.
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Depp opens up about his marriage with Heard
Depp said of their relationship, “So, what were my initial dealings with what we call ‘love?’ Clearly obtuse. And what that means is, 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.”
He continued, “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.”
The actor added, “And the interesting thing is that it is merely a sliver of my life I have chosen to explore, because it is my mother and my father. Do you know what I’m saying?”
Depp briefly touched on the subject of his childhood and said, “I wouldn’t say it was a house without love… But it was an intense love and I would not say that myself, or my siblings, or my pop and mom, experienced any great love or bliss.”
His legal fight with Heard became public after he sued the publisher of The Sun and editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article that called him a “wife-beater.” In 2020, the court ruled in favor of the publisher. Depp later sued Heard for defamation over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post.
“And what that means is, 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,” he repeated, during a March appearance in NYC.
Amber countersued Depp in 2020, and the trial officially began in April 2022. The jury reached a verdict in June that year, siding with Depp.
Depp expresses gratitude towards the jury in his trial
Depp shared about his reaction after the trial was over. He revealed, “The jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.”
He also said, “Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that.”
Amber has since moved to Spain, where she is raising her three children. One daughter was born via surrogacy in 2021, and she recently welcomed twins.
Depp, meanwhile, has returned to acting. He starred in Jeanne du Barry in 2023. He also reflected on how people close to him turned their backs on him during the trial.
He said, “As weird as I am, certain things can be trusted. And my loyalty is the last thing anybody could question. I was with one agent for 30 years, but she spoke in court about how difficult I was.”
He went on, “That’s death by confetti, these fake motherf****** who lie to you, celebrate you, say all sorts of horror behind your back, yet keep the money—that confetti machine going—because what do they want? Dough.”
Johnny added, “There are people, and I’m thinking of three, who did me dirty…”
He explained they had once been close friends, “And, look, I understand people who could not stand up [for me], because the most frightening thing to them was making the right choice. I was pre-MeToo. I was like a crash test dummy for MeToo.”
In an October 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Depp said he doesn’t hold any grudges:
“Honestly, I can sit here this very second and think about all the hit pieces, and how everybody was against me, and yeah yeah yeah he is off the map … endless stuff.”
He added, “I can remember it all. Went through it all. Some of it was not the most beautiful time, some of it was hilarious. Some of it was mad. The thing is, it simply just was, and it simply just is. So, for me, it happened. I learned, man. Everything that we experience, whether you’re given a snow cone or walking your dog, you learn something somewhere along the way.”
“As weird as I am, certain things can be trusted. And my loyalty is the last thing anybody could question.”
He also explained, “So I don’t have any ill feelings toward anyone. I don’t have this great reserve of hatred, because hatred requires caring. Why carry that baggage?”
Depp delves into his new project
Depp is now gearing up for a new movie, Day Drinker, directed by Marc Webb and co-starring Penélope Cruz, Madelyn Cline, Manu Ríos, and Javier Botet. According to IMDb, it’s about “an enigmatic stranger” who forms an unexpected connection with a grieving bartender.
A new photo from the movie showed the actor nearly unrecognizable, with graying hair and a beard.
When asked if he had any regrets, Depp told The Sunday Times, “I have no regrets about anything—because, truly, what can we do about last week’s dinner? Not a f***ing thing.”
(By Varnika Srivastava)
