Johnny Depp Confesses He’d Quit Acting To Clear His Name In Messy Amber Heard Divorce

Though it’s been nearly two years since he finalized his divorce from second wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp is still trying to set the record straight on their messy split. In his first-ever interview about their highly-publicized separation, the 55-year-old star shockingly confessed he’d quit acting in order to clear his name in the abuse allegations Amber, 32, previously made against him in their divorce proceedings. 

“The thing that hurt me is being presented as something that you’re really as far away from as you could possibly get, you know?” Johnny told GQ in an interview published on Wednesday, Oct. 3. 

“To harm someone you love? As a kind of bully? No, it didn’t, it couldn’t even sound like me. So, initially, I just kept my mouth shut, you know? I knew it was going to stick on me and it would get weirder. Keep going, you know? Go nuts. I ain’t going to get into a pissing contest with someone about it. Spit out what you need to spit out and, you know, my attorneys will take care of the rest. I never went out and spoke about the s–t,” he continued, referring to Amber’s allegations that he had been both verbally and physically abusive during their two-year marriage. 

“But of course I care what my family and my kids think,” he said about his two children, daughter Lily-Rose Depp, 19, and son Jack Depp, 16, with former partner Vanessa Paradis. “I mean, you realize right away, essentially, that what is being done is the commencement of what they hope is to be your funeral.”

At the time of Amber’s abuse allegations, Johnny’s lawyers said the actress was “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse” especially since the two reaportedly did not have a prenuptial agreement when they tied the knot in February 2015. When they finally settled their divorce in early 2017, Johnny was ordered to pay $7 million to Amber, which she later donated to charity. 

“And worse than that, to take away future earnings that are for my kids, you know? I do this s–t for my kids, man. How could someone, anyone, come out with something like that against someone, when there’s no truth to it whatsoever? I’m sure it wasn’t easy for my 14-year-old boy to go to school, you know what I mean? With people going, ‘Hey, look at this magazine, man. What, your dad beats up chicks or something?’ Why did he have to go through that? Why did my daughter have to go through that?” Johnny continued. 

“We probably shouldn’t be talking about this, but I am worried. I worry about the people that bought it and I worry about [Amber]. It’s just not right. I will never stop fighting. I’ll never stop. They’d have to f–king shoot me. An episode like this takes time to get over. It’s a mourning for someone you thought was [different],” he said. 

Since then, Johnny admitted he’s been working hard to rebuild his reputation. “Listen, I know I was never going to be Cinderella — I know this and accept it. But it felt like within a very, very short period of time that suddenly this version — for lack of a better word — of Cinderella had been immediately turned into the beast. He’s Quasimodo,” he shared. 

“I could feel people look at me differently, because of the accusations towards you. And then people start putting things in magazines: ‘He’s insane. He needs to take a sanity test…’ You know, ludicrous stuff,” Johnny said. “But the only thing that I could do was know what I still know. Ultimately, the truth will come out in all of this and I will be standing on the right side of the roaring rapids. I hope other people will be too. I know the truth and if I had to walk away from all of it today, the job, the career, all of it, and go toodle-oo, then fine.”

“I’ve got nothing to prove to anyone, because I’ve never been in competition with anyone. I don’t buy into that s–t. I’m not interested in receiving any spray-painted action figures.You know, maybe whatever this thing is, whatever I leave behind, you know, my legacy to my kids or the people, I haven’t watched 98 percent of that s–t. It may be completely insane. It may be crap. It may be interesting. I don’t f–king know what it is. But what I do know is that I did something, and I tried something different, for a period of years. Did it work? Who the f–k knows? But I did it and I’m fine to stop,” he added. 

After Johnny’s interview with GQ was published, Amber’s legal team released their own statement about his comments on their tumultuous divorce. “If GQ had done even a basic investigation into Mr. Depp’s claims, it would have quickly realized that his statements are entirely untrue. Mr. Depp has blatantly disregarded the parties’ confidentiality agreement and yet has refused to allow Ms. Heard to respond to his baseless allegations, despite repeated requests that she be allowed to do so,” the statement given to The Hollywood Reporter read. 

“Mr. Depp is shamefully continuing his psychological abuse of Ms. Heard, who has attempted to put a very painful part of her life firmly in her past. One need only look at the physical evidence to draw the proper conclusion,” the message continued.