Johnny Depp has claimed that he was the “victim of domestic violence”, and that his ex-wife Amber Heard “had an agenda” to marry him “in order to progress her own career and/or to benefit financially”.
The 57-year-old took to the witness stand this morning on the first day of his trial against The Sun newspaper, over an article that claimed the actor was a “wife beater”.
The actor said the claims that he had an “overbearing, manipulative, or controlling personality” were actually “reflections” of his ex-wife’s behaviour.
In his witness statement, Johnny stated: “In the tapes of my conversations with Amber that have now been disclosed, it is clear that Amber spoke to me as an aggressor, and not as she has described herself, someone who feared for her life.”
“The hours of recordings reveal the true nature and dynamic of our relationship, including Amber’s confessions of serial violence against me.”
“The threat that nobody will believe I am a victim of domestic violence, and her own acknowledgement that she could not control her violence.”
The star revealed he felt manipulated by his ex-wife, and alleged that she faked having the same interests as him – because he was an “easy target”.
“She presented herself as a carbon copy of me, with precisely the same interests, thoughts, favourite writers, taste in music and art as me,” Johnny claimed.
“At the time, she repeatedly told me how much she admired my films. However, later in our relationship she admitted that she had never seen any of my films.”
“She knew what she wanted and I was an easy target… She had well and truly researched me and my interests and she would try to pose as some expert or intellectual on these things to try to ingratiate herself with me,” Johnny alleged.
He also claimed he once heard Amber call him a “fat old man” to his former head of security Jerry Judge.
During his witness statement today, Johnny also claimed that the childhood abuse he endured turned him against being violent.
“When I knew I was going to have a baby back in 1998, one of my promises was I would raise my children in the exact opposite way to the way I was raised,” he said.
The actor believes the article written by The Sun was an attempt to “finish his career”, and in court today, his lawyers argued that allegations of him being a “wife beater” are “complete lies”.
The trial is set to take place over 15 days.
On the latest episode of Goss Chats, Ali Ryan sits down with Selling Sunset’s Christine Quinn, who reveals the real drama between the women on the show, and how she battled coronavirus on her wedding day.
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