‘Shane told Johnny to forgive Amber, but he said he had to clear his name’
Allegations of violence and disputes about who did what to whom are being aired in a UK court, writes
HOLLYWOOD superstar Johnny Depp confided in friends Shane MacGowan and Victoria Mary Clarke over the tumultuous breakup of his marriage with Amber Heard.
The actor, who had flown to Copenhagen to see his friends of 30 years tie the knot, was said to have been “visibly shook” at the wedding, and spoke about the allegations levied at him in a tabloid newspaper six months earlier.
Clarke told the Sunday Independent how the star appeared to be a shadow of his former self.
“He was very traumatised when we met him. Very, very shook. For all the time I have known him, I have never seen him that shook,” she said. “He was really battered by it.”
The Pogues frontman advised Depp on the day, suggesting the Hollywood star should forgive Heard. Clarke said the pair had a heart-to-heart over what the actor should do and how he could respond to the bitter split.
“I do remember Shane saying to him that he should forgive Amber. And [Johnny] said that he would love to be able to get there but that, for the sake of his kids, he knew he needed to clear his name.
“That was the thing that upset him most,” said Clarke, “how his kids had been affected by what was being said. I think if he didn’t have kids, he wouldn’t have bothered [pursuing the case].”
The 57-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean star has given evidence at London High Court as he sues The Sun newspaper for libel. In a 2018 article by the newspaper’s executive editor Dan Wootton, Depp was described as a ‘‘wife beater’’ following claims by his ex-wife Heard (34), that he repeatedly attacked her.
Heard claimed that Depp first hit her in early 2013 — one of 14 separate allegations of domestic violence which are being relied on by the newspaper group in its defence.
Depp strenuously denies the allegations.
After a week of sordid details about how the A-list marriage spiralled out of control, Clarke said she and MacGowan are standing by their friend. “We have known Johnny for over 30 years and we have never seen him behave in any way aggressively,” she said, “He avoids confrontation like the plague.”
“I have seen Shane bully and slag Johnny to the point where I would even lose my temper at some of the things he would say. But Johnny would just take it, and take it, and take it.”
She described how the couple also made fun of him over his infamous ‘‘Winona Forever’’ tattoo that is at the centre of proceedings. The actor had it changed to ‘‘Wino Forever’’ following their split.
It was claimed Heard made fun of his tattoo, which she alleges prompted Depp to slap her several times. When asked about it in court, Depp said the story was “patently untrue”.
On her own experience of teasing the actor about the marking, Clarke said: “When we first met him, myself and Shane both laughed at his tattoo and he laughed too. He wasn’t in any way sensitive about it.”
On Depp’s personality, Clarke said that she would “hate to be married to Johnny”.
“As a woman I can imagine being driven demented if I was married to him.
“If he has a fault, it’s his tendency to disappear into his own little bubble which doesn’t include anyone or anything else. A lot of creative people are like that. So I can see how a woman would be very frustrated not getting all his attention. And that could be infuriating. You wouldn’t want to be needy, you’d need to be very independent, that’s for sure. I think he needs an artist type.”
Clarke says the couple met Heard once. She described the model and actress as “very beautiful”, adding that Depp had “a compulsion” to be with her.
WHEN Johnny Depp decided to take his ongoing libel case against News Group Newspapers it was, presumably, a considered decision. As he has said, it wasn’t about money, it was about vindication and proving that The Sun was incorrect and libellous in calling him a “wife beater”.
There to clear his name, he was presumably prepared for the revelations last week. These came thick and fast and saw him admit to being disrespectful of his ex-wife Amber Heard, of texting ‘jokes’ to his actor friend Paul Bettany about drowning her, burning her and having sex with her corpse, and of drink and drug use that caused him to lash out — although not at his wife.
In a Covid-era trial that is reported to be taking place in five different London courtrooms to allow for social distancing, both Depp and Heard arrived and left wearing face masks, with him taking the stand last Tuesday and continuing through last week.
There, Depp was quizzed for The Sun by QC Sasha Wass about 14 alleged attacks on Heard. The allegations included him bursting her lip in a row over him trying to set fire to a painting by her ex, slapping and kicking her on a private plane journey, and attacking her in Australia in 2015, which is said to have ended with him smashing a telephone into a wall and severing his finger.
Depp denies all of these alleged assaults and claims that his finger was severed when Heard threw two vodka bottles at him. Drink and drugs seem to be a feature in the altercations and Depp makes no attempt to sanitise or defend this, but alleges that Heard was the physical aggressor in the relationship.
One incident put to Depp last week concerned the allegation that he slapped Heard three times after she mocked his “Wino Forever” tattoo.
The alleged incident occurred in 2013, when Depp agreed he had “fallen off the wagon” after 160 days of sobriety. It was put to him that he was angry when Heard laughed at the irony of the tattoo, a conversation he said he doesn’t recall. He said that the suggestion he slapped Heard is untrue.
The “Wino Forever” tattoo is a laser-edited version of Depp’s original “Winona Forever” inking, dating from his 1990s engagement to Winona Ryder.
She is expected to testify that Depp was never violent with her during their relationship, and so too is Vanessa Paradis, who is the mother of his two children.
Last week, Depp admitted he had broken an Art Deco light in a caravan during a drink- and drug-fuelled row with Heard after a woman at a party touched her sexually in front of him. Of a row captured on Heard’s phone and shown in court, where he smashed up a kitchen and poured himself what The Sun called ‘a mega pint’ of wine, Depp said: “I was violent with some cupboards.” He was reminded of wrecking a hotel sofa in a room where his then partner Kate Moss slept and said: “Rather than assaulting a human being, I assaulted a couch.”
“That I was angry doesn’t mean I have anger problems,” Depp said in court last Tuesday. The anger that Amber Heard has alleged was physically directed at her many times in their relationship was, she alleges, a result of Depp’s problem with drink and drugs — the Jekyll and Hyde nature of his behaviour due to substance abuse and his fury when she tried to help him. Depp’s testimony last Tuesday was that Heard was not in his life to help him. In fact, he asserted, she had a different agenda.
HE SAID, SHE SAID: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard at the court in London
Depp makes no bones about his drinking or drug use. He said in court last week that he began using both when he was only 11, as result of a chaotic, unstable and unpleasant home life. He also admits that as his relationship with
Vanessa Paradis ended, he was drinking a lot.
However, according to Depp, Heard was not the possible solution to his problems, but the exacerbation of them.
In papers filed as part of his action, Depp recalled the beginnings of their relationship, as they publicised their 2011 film, The Rum Diary.
“If I had known then what I know now, I would have seen the red flag warning signs, but I did not,” Depp said. “She was beautiful, seemingly incredibly interested in me and my work, and I fell for it. She bombed me with what appeared to be love.
“It was not until much later,” Depp continued, “that I understood that she had an agenda, namely to get married to me in order to progress her own career and/or to benefit financially, and she knew how to bring it about.”
He alleged that during marriage counselling, Heard was diagnosed as “borderline, toxic narcissistic personality disorder and is a sociopath”. He said that their time together was “extremely unhappy”. She goaded him as a fat old man, said he was a bad father, made him feel small and like the “turd in the sangria”. He also alleges that after one row, she or one of her friends defecated in their bed.
“I am now convinced,” Depp continued in his written statement, “that she came into my life to take from me anything worth taking, and then destroy what remained of it.”
Depp also alleged that Heard began a dossier of evidence against him from early in their relationship in a way that was calculated to destroy him. Last week’s court case saw video and audio evidence of angry outbursts on Depp’s part and a photograph of a table of drink and drugs identified as for his use. Depp did not argue with the veracity of any of these, just with the accusation that he is a “wife beater”.
Amber Heard has yet to testify, in a case that seems likely to roll on and leave no one cast in a good light.
‘She came to take anything worth taking, and then destroy what remained’