‘Obviously, I now rate above Johnny Depp’: Barnaby Joyce reacts to Amber Heard’s nod to Deputy PM

Barnaby Joyce says he must still be in Amber Heard’s head as the actress reveals her new dog’s name, a nod to the 2015 feud involving ‘Pistol’ and ‘Boo’.

Barnaby Joyce says he has a “real sense of accomplishment” after US actress Amber Heard named her new dog after the Deputy Prime Minister, in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the 2015 feud over a biosecurity breach involving her two dogs.

Heard illegally brought her two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into Australia on a private jet in 2015 when she flew to Queensland’s Gold Coast to visit her then-husband Johnny Depp who was filming Pirates of the Caribbean.

On Twitter, the Aquaman actress – who has since divorced Depp – wrote “meet the newest member of the Heard family, Barnaby Joyce!” while standing in front of a Christmas tree holding her new furry friend.

Meet the newest member of the Heard family, Barnaby Joyce! 🐶 pic.twitter.com/fFZkx0ckkt

— Amber Heard (@realamberheard) December 26, 2021

Mr Joyce told The Australian he was “fine” with the name choice and added that he had “no problems with animals”.

“I get a real sense of accomplishment that I’m still in her head long after I’ve forgotten about them,” he said.

“Obviously, I now rate above Johnny Depp.”

Barnaby Joyce. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Johnny Depp. Picture: Getty Images

In 2015, Mr Joyce – then agriculture minister – gave the pair a 50-hour deadline to get Pistol and Boo out of the country or risk handing them over to customs to be euthanised. During the saga, Depp described Mr Joyce as “some kind of sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia”.

In 2016, Heard pleaded guilty to accidentally providing false information on her passenger arrival card and was sentenced to a $1000 good behaviour bond. Depp and Heard were forced to release a stilted and scripted video apology for breaching Australia’s strict biosecurity laws. Pistol and Boo were eventually sent back to the US.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard during the apology video.

Depp and Heard were married in 2015 but began a messy separation after the actress filed for divorce in 2016. She alleged Depp had been physically and verbally abusive towards her. Depp has denied the allegations and a divorce settlement was finalised in 2017.

But further details of the pair’s marriage became public during Depp’s defamation proceedings against News Group Newspapers in Britain. Its publication The Sun had published articles detailing details about the pair’s marriage and the alleged abuse. Depp lost the libel claim last year, with a court ruling that the allegations published by the Sun were true and he repeatedly assaulted his wife during their 2015 Gold Coast trip.