Johnny Depp Admits To Drinking More When He Was With Amber Heard To ‘Escape’ Their ‘Constant Clashes’
On the second day of his defamation trial against Amber Heard, Johnny Depp explained that he relied on drugs and alcohol to ‘distance’ himself from his ex-wife’s ‘verbal attacks’ during their marriage.
Johnny Depp, 58, revealed on his second day in court that his turbulent marriage to ex Amber Heard, 35, affected his substance abuse. The Pirates of the Caribbean actor testified on Wednesday, April 20 that he used to turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with the former couple’s “constant clashes,” which triggered memories of the abuse he faced from his parents as a child. “My substance abuse or the alcohol that I drank was again, purely that little boy who didn’t want to hear or didn’t want to feel the pain of his mother turning him into some kind of ball of insecurity and pain,” Johnny said. “So yes, I was more inspired by Ms Heard to reach out for a numbing agent because of the constant clashes.”
The Oscar nominee went on, “I had to have something to distance me and distance my heart from those verbal attacks. I had to have something to be able to maintain me. Because I didn’t want to rock the boat as it were. Again, you pick your battles. So placation seemed the best route if I was unable to escape her clutches.” Johnny also shared that Amber “had been quite clear verbally and pretty bullish and brutish about telling me that I needed to stop drinking.”
The Fantastic Beasts actor claimed that he stopped drinking at his then-wife’s behest, but Amber did not, and after they fought in a restaurant one night, Johnny allegedly asked the Aquaman actress to join him in sobriety. Amber, however, allegedly refused and claimed “she didn’t have a problem.” Johnny also accused his ex-wife of using illicit drugs “several times” in his presence. He claimed that Amber “was always quite fond of MDMA” and allegedly took the psychoactive drug “20 times over the course of the years.”
After discussing his substance abuse, Johnny pushed back against Amber’s claims of abuse and swore that he “never struck” his ex or any woman in his life. The former couple are currently engulfed in a $50 million defamation lawsuit. Johnny is suing his ex-wife over a December 2018 op-ed that Amber wrote for the Washington Post. In the piece, she claimed she had become “a public figure representing domestic abuse,” and although she didn’t cite her ex-husband by name, Johnny filed a libel lawsuit against her. His lawyers accused Amber of fabricating the claims to advance her career, prompting her to file a $100 million countersuit.
Johnny and Amber got married in February 2015 and split over a year later. Their divorce was finalized in January 2017.