‘Misogynistic’ Johnny Depp ‘a hopeless addict’, libel trial told

Johnny Depp did drugs with a male ‘clique’, abused Amber Heard, and discredited her as a ‘gold-digger’ and ‘shrew’, QC says.

Actor Johnny Depp, centre, and some of his alleged 'rabble rousers': Rolling Stones' Keith Richards, left, and singer Marilyn Manson, right. Pictures: Getty/Supplied/Getty

Johnny Depp created a “misogynistic” stereotype of his wife as “a nagging woman” to justify violent attacks on her, the High Court was told on Monday.

The Pirates of the Caribbean actor abused Amber Heard and then discredited her as a “gold-digger, shrew and an adulterer” as part of a public-relations campaign, Sasha Wass, QC, said.

Depp, 57, is suing Dan Wootton, the executive editor of The Sun, and its publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), over an article in 2018 that called him a “wife beater”. The actor did not attend the High Court for the first time in the 15 days of the libel trial as Ms Wass, for NGN, which also publishes The Times, summarised the defence case. Heard arrived at court with her girlfriend, Bianca Butti, an actress.

Ms Wass told the court that Depp was “part of a clique of ageing male rabblerousers” who abused alcohol and took drugs together. The court has been told that Depp took drugs with the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, 76, the musician Marilyn Manson, 51, and the actor Paul Bettany, 49.

“By the time he approached 50 his lifestyle was starting to take its toll and was destroying his career and his health,” Ms Wass said.

Depp hoped that Heard, 34, would help “save himself from his demons” but grew to hate the actress because of her “protectiveness”, Ms Wass said. “Mr Depp had spent his entire adult life doing exactly what he wanted and he was not about to start answering to a woman. It was a clash of cultures and clash of generations.

Johnny Depp, Amber Heard and Keith Richards in a picture shown in court. Picture: Supplied

At the heart of Mr Depp’s problem are two conflicting forces: his love of the drugs culture and his aspiration to be the Southern gentleman with a young beautiful wife.

‘Unable to control her’

“When Mr Depp chose Ms Heard as his life partner, he did not expect her to carry on acting in films with young and attractive actors. Mr Depp was unable to control [her] and … it had a detrimental effect on his state of mind.”

The QC said there was “no doubt that Mr Depp regularly and systematically abused his wife”, whom he married in February 2015. Ms Wass said that while abusing drugs and alcohol the actor had suffered irrational mood swings and abnormal behavioural patterns.

“Mr Depp has a name for this metamorphosed entity, namely the Monster,” Ms Wass said. Depp’s “recollection of his own disgraceful conduct” was so badly impaired by drug misuse “that he may not even have been aware of the extent of his violence”.

He resented Heard’s efforts to help him maintain his sobriety and “created a misogynistic persona of her as a stereotype nagging woman”, Ms Wass added.

Amber Heard arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice. Picture: John Phillips/Getty Images

After Heard obtained a domestic violence restraining order against Depp in 2016 he turned to “old-fashioned methods used to discredit a woman: that she is a gold-digger, a shrew and an adulterer”, Ms Wass said.

The QC described Depp as a “hopeless addict” whose own doctor said “actually romanticises the whole drug culture”.

Boasted of getting charges dropped

The attacks were often caused by Depp’s jealousy of Heard’s co-stars, including Billy Bob Thornton, 64, and James Franco, 42, Ms Wass added.

After their divorce Depp boasted to a friend that he got the “charges dropped for $5mil” having “settled with the whore”, the court was told.

Ms Wass said that The Sun had to prove on the balance of probabilities that Depp beat Heard at least once. The QC told Mr Justice Nicol that if he found Heard to be a “truthful and plausible witness” then her evidence alone was enough to prove the defence case.

The Sun relies on 14 alleged incidents of domestic violence. Depp denies them and claims that Heard was violent.

Mr Justice Nicol said that he would not rule on a claim that Heard left faeces in the marital bed in April 2016. He had said: “I’m struggling at the moment to find why I would have to make a decision as to who defecated in this bed.”

The case continues.

The Times