Johnny Depp feared Amber Heard abuse allegations would hurt his children: 'It wasn’t easy for them to go to school'
Even as fans are learning the truth behind Amber Heard's allegations of domestic abuse against ex-husband Johnny Depp, it is important to remember that some of the people who had nothing to do with the mess but became 'collateral damage' anyway were the 'Pirates Of Caribbean' star's children, who he always tried to protect.
In a 2018 interview, following his out-of-court divorce settlement with Heard, Depp opened up about why he had chosen to stay silent even when the 'Aquaman' actress accused him of physically assaulting her multiple times during their 15-month-long marriage.
“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 said.
In the same interview, the actor spoke about the fact that all through the legal battle, his kids - Lily-Rose and John Christopher - had been at the top of his mind and how the whole thing was affecting them and their futures.
“But of course I care what my family and my kids think. I mean, you realize right away, essentially, that what is being done is the commencement of what they hope is to be your funeral. 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?” Depp had said in the interview with GQ.
In one of the leaked phone recordings of private conversations between the former couple obtained earlier this month by Daily Mail, Depp was heard voicing similar concerns to Heard as he pleaded with her to not paint him as a wife-beater in the public eye.
“You are f***ing killing me,” the father-of-two said. “You’ve turned me into a … my boy goes to school and has kids go, ‘So your f***ing dad’s a wife beater?’ You don’t think about that, Amber.”
The conversations proved that Amber physically abused Depp during their marriage.