Johnny Depp has claimed his former manager stole $650 million from him in an “unpleasant and ugly” business meeting.
The actor was on the witness stand in London’s High Court for the fifth day today in a libel case against The Sun – over a 2018 article which labelled him a “wife-beater”.
The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers are defending the article’s publication by trying to prove that he was abusive towards his ex-wife Amber, but Johnny has maintained his innocence.
The court today heard about an alleged incident that took place on Amber’s 30th birthday party in 2016, where she claimed Johnny threw a champagne bottle at her in an argument after discovering the money had been stolen.
Johnny denied throwing a magnum of champagne at his ex-wife, before dragging her by her hair during a fight.
While giving evidence today, the actor claims the couple rowed when he discovered his manager had stolen money from him.
“I was in the early stage of learning from my recently acquired new business manager that the former business managers had (taken) quite a lot of my money,” he claimed, “They had stolen my money.”
When asked how much money was stolen, the 57-year-old spoke about the fortune he made in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
“It was put to me this way, because I had no idea about money or amounts of money,” he stated.
“Since Pirates [Of The Caribbean] 2 and 3, I had – and this is ludicrous to have to state, it’s quite embarrassing – apparently I had made 650 million US dollars.”
“When I sacked them, for the right reasons, I had not only lost 650 million dollars, but I was 100 million dollars in the hole because they [the previous business managers] had not paid the government my taxes for 17 years.”
Last week, Sasha Wass QC who is representing News Group Newspapers, claimed he picked up a large bottle of champagne and threw it at Amber – before he allegedly “grabbed Heard by the hair and pushed her to the ground”.
Johnny allegedly then left, leaving a note that read: “Happy F***ing Birthday”.
He has continuously denied accusations that he was physically abusive towards Amber, claiming that she was in fact abusive towards him.
The actor said the claims that he had an “overbearing, manipulative, or controlling personality” were actually “reflections” of his ex-wife’s behaviour.
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