Johnny Depp has opened up about staying with Amber Heard despite her alleged abuse.
Depp's $50 million (£38m) defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife, centred on a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which Heard claimed she had become 'a public figure representing domestic abuse', is ongoing in Virginia.
Depp's attorneys have accused Heard of orchestrating an elaborate 'hoax' with the 'clear implication' he was an abuser, coming after the Pirates of the Caribbean star lost his libel case against The Sun because the judge ruled claims he was a 'wife-beater' to be 'substantially true'.
'She has a need for conflict, she has a need for violence' — Acknowledging the problems in his marriage with now ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp said he stayed in the relationship because he 'didn’t want to fail' pic.twitter.com/ELfewN7uSK
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 20, 2022
Today, 20 April, Depp has been testifying against Heard. When asked why he stayed with his Rum Diary co-star even when she was allegedly 'abusive', he cited the relationship between his parents.
He said: "I stayed, I suppose because my father stayed. I suppose because I had been in that relationship with Vanessa Paradis, that was lost.
"I didn't want to fail. I wanted to try to make it work. I thought maybe I could help her. I thought maybe I could bring her around.
"The Amber Heard that I knew for the first year and a half was not this... opponent. It wasn't my girl, she'd become my opponent. Everything I did... she didn't accept it.
"I stayed because, of course I didn't want to fail. I didn't want to hurt anyone, especially Miss Heard. I didn't want to break her heart.
When asked why he stayed in the relationship with #AmberHeard, #JohnnyDepp says it may have had to do with growing up watching his father take abuse from his mother. @LawCrimeNetwork https://t.co/ov1ocAxrYP pic.twitter.com/bPy4iAUchE
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 20, 2022
"I remember very well that when my father left and my mother very soon had that first attempt at suicide that I woke up to. That visual in my head... that was a direct result of my father's leaving.
"Miss Heard had spoken of suicide on a couple of occasions, so that also becomes a factor. That's also something that always lives in the back of your brain, and that you fear.
"Many times when I would try to leave, she would stop me at the elevator with the security guards crying and screaming, 'I can't live without you, I'm gonna die.' She had to get out."
Depp alleged on some of the occasions he managed to 'escape', she'd arrive in front of his house 'screaming to the high heavens' in the car park, sometimes in the early hours of the morning.
"It was ludicrous, it was out of control, it was uncontrollable," he added.
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