Depp’s kind and not violent, says ex-love Vanessa
JOHNNY Depp’s former partner Vanessa Paradis has said he is a “kind, attentive, generous and nonviolent person and father”, court documents revealed yesterday.
The Hollywood actor is suing the Sun newspaper’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), over an article which referred to the 56-year-old as a “wife-beater”.
It related to allegations made by his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, which Depp strenuously denies.
His lawyers want evidence from Ms Paradis, 47, to be heard when the case comes to court in July.
David Sherborne, representing Depp, said his relationship with Ms Paradis ended in 2012, shortly before he and Ms Heard, 34, got together “and when he is first alleged to have been violent”.
In a witness statement, the French star said: “I have known Johnny for more than 25 years. We’ve been partners for 14 years and we raised our two children together.
“Through all these years I’ve known Johnny to be a kind, attentive, generous, and non-violent person and father. He was never violent or abusive to me.”
At a hearing conducted over Skype yesterday, a statement from actress Winona Ryder, 48, who was in a relationship with the star in the 1990s, said: “I cannot wrap my head around [Ms Heard’s] accusations. He was never, never violent towards me. He was never, never abusive at all towards me.”
Mr Sherborne said Depp denies that he has ever hit any woman and he accuses Ms Heard of being “abusive and physically aggressive” – which she denies. The libel claim against NGN and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, came after an April 2018 article in The Sun bore the headline: “Gone Potty – How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wifebeater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?” Depp and Ms Heard met on the set of 2011 film The Rum Diary and married in February 2015. In May 2016, she obtained a restraining order against him after accusing him of abuse, which he denied.
The couple settled their divorce out of court in 2017, with Ms Heard donating her £5.5 million settlement to charity.
A March trial, which was put on hold due to the pandemic, is now set to take place at London’s High Court from July 7.