Featured Image Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo/REUTERS/Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Amber Heard, Celebrity, Johnny Depp, Lily-Rose Depp
Ali Condon
Topics: Amber Heard, Celebrity, Johnny Depp, Lily-Rose Depp
Lily-Rose Depp has explained the thought process behind her decision to stay silent during her dad Johnny Depp's controversial trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard.
The only daughter of the Pirates of the Caribbean star refused to get involved in the public discourse surrounding what wound up being the biggest trial of the year.
Despite being mentioned a number of times throughout the Depp v Heard trial, Lily-Rose, 23, would rather not get involved in her dad's battles and be defined by her own life choices.
Speaking to Elle magazine ahead of the release of her new HBO series The Idol, Lily-Rose explained that she's more interested in proving herself as a stand-alone actress, rather than piggybacking off her father's name.
Advert
While she remained quite closed off about her thoughts on the trial during the candid interview, Lily-Rose explained: "When it's something that's so private and so personal that all of a sudden becomes not so personal…I feel really entitled to my secret garden of thoughts."
She continued: "I also think that I'm not here to answer for anybody, and I feel like for a lot of my career, people have really wanted to define me by the men in my life, whether that's my family members or my boyfriends, whatever.
"And I'm really ready to be defined for the things that I put out there."
The actor and model, who is the daughter of Depp and Vanessa Paradis, said that being born into a famous family meant that she was taught the value of privacy from an early age.
"I know my childhood didn't look like everybody’s childhood, and it's a very particular thing to deal with, but it's also the only thing that I know," she began.
"My parents protected my brother and me from it as much as possible. I've just been raised in a manner that has taught me that privacy is something that's important to protect."
The six-week trial in Fairfax County, Virginia earlier this year saw Depp sue Heard for defamation over a 2018 op-ed piece she had written for the Washington Post about domestic violence, despite Heard not mentioning Depp by name.
During the trial, Lily-Rose was mentioned by name a number of times, as Heard's team presented evidence that the actor had a close relationship with Depp's daughter.
When the trial reached its conclusion, the jury found that Heard did defame Depp on all three counts, while Heard won one of her defamation counterclaims.
Both parties are appealing the verdicts.