Sharon Osbourne slammed for Johnny Depp defence

Sharon Osbourne has been slammed for controversial comments about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, claiming it “takes two to tango.”

Sharon Osbourne has been slammed by a domestic abuse charity after she defended “wife-beater” Johnny Depp, saying: “It takes two to Tango.”

The outspoken 68-year-old star shockingly said the actor doesn’t deserve to lose his Hollywood career and that abused Amber Heard “gave him as good as she got”.

Last week a judge defended The Sun ’s decision to brand Depp a wife beater in a 2018 article.

In a damning summary of the case it was established that Heard was beaten by her ex-husband Depp on 12 occasions. The shamed actor – who has said he will appeal the decision – has subsequently been axed from the Fantastic Beasts films.

In his ruling, High Court judge Andrew Nicol found the newspaper’s claims were “substantially true”.

“The claimant has not succeeded in his action for libel,” Judge Nichol said.

“Although he has proved the necessary elements of his cause of action in libel, the defendants have shown that what they published in the meaning which I have held the words to bear was substantially true.”

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Sharon Osbourne on The Talk.

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But speaking on US daytime show The Talk days after the verdict, Sharon compared the pair’s relationship to her violent marriage to Ozzy saying: “She gave him as good as she got.”

“Do you know what I think? It takes two to Tango. I think they had a very vulnerable relationship. I think they’re both as bad as each other.”

Domestic Abuse charity Women’s Aid hit out at the star, telling The Sun that the comments send a “dangerous message”.

Sharon continued: “She gave him as good as she got. It wasn’t just like a little mouse in the corner being battered. She gave him back.

“I had a relationship like that with my husband at one time. I would give him what he gave me. He shoved me, I’d shove him back. Some people are like that.”

The star once described her marriage to Ozzy as so volatile that she “would wake up with my two front teeth missing”.

Speaking about Depp and Heard on The Talk this week, Sharon insisted: “If there is enough love you work through it with help. But there obviously wasn’t that love to keep them together.

Amber Heard and Johnny Depp had a tumultuous relationship. Picture: Mike Coppola/Getty

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“He was defending himself, she was defending herself. Whatever went on only those two know. They both hurt each other.

“I think that it’s got nothing to do with his acting – we’ve had actors here that have been racist, that have done terrible things – but they’re still starring in movies.

“But if you’re a good actor and a responsible person on set what’s that got to do with if you shove your girlfriend and she cut your finger off?”

However, a spokesperson for Women’s Aid told The Sun: “These comments send out a dangerous message, as ‘it takes two to tango’ makes it sound like domestic abuse means mutual abuse.

“In reality domestic abuse is almost always underpinned by one partner using power and control against the other.

“Sometimes women acting in self defence are told this makes them as bad as the abuser, and this can stop them from reaching out for the support that they desperately need.

“With one woman being killed on average every four days in the UK by a current or former partner, it is vital that domestic abuse is always taken seriously.”

Sharon’s remarks, made on the November 4 episode of The Talk, saw co-star Carrie Ann Inaba instantly disagree, saying: “We need to be responsible for whose films we’re buying and whose things we’re watching.”

Sharon said she and husband Ozzy had at one stage had a similarly volatile relationship. Picture: AFP

And many viewers agreed, with one writing: “No partner should be lifting a hand to another. Not acceptable under any circumstances.”

Another tweeted: “NO to Sharon for defending Johnny Depp’s domestic violence & for victim-blaming.

“Likening woman fighting/‘giving it back’ to physically abusive man is backwards & disturbing.”

Mr Justice Nicol confirmed in a London High Court ­ruling on 2 November that Depp attacked Amber Heard 12 times.

In a victory for press freedom, London’s High Court ruled The Sun was right to brand the Pirates of the Caribbean actor a “wife beater” for his brutal attacks on his ex.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission