The Sins of Johnny Depp's Mother

The first thing I want to say is I don’t know anyone involved in this case. Everything I state below are my own opinions based on the evidence that is available and from my own personal experiences with intimate partner violence.

Obviously I’m going back on my word that I wouldn’t be talking about the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard saga. However, too much has happened with the courtroom proceedings for me not to say something. There’s a lot for me to uncover, but I will do my best to at least go over some of the key points of this entire situation.

For those who haven’t been following this case, Johnny Depp is suing Amber Heard for Defamation due to an Op-ed where Amber Heard said she was the victim of domestic and sexual violence. Johnny Depp is never named in the Op-ed, however, due to the timing of the piece and the timing of their divorce, it’s more than a little obvious who she was actually talking about. This has led to one the biggest courtroom dramas since the Michael Jackson trial in 2005. What I mean by that is with social media covering everything every second of the day, it’s been very easy for we as a society to grab onto it. The reasons for the fascination varies from person to person, but one of the biggest things to come out with this whole thing is the awareness of the start of the conversation about men who are the victims of domestic violence at the hands of their wives.

Johnny Depp took the stand near the beginning of this trial. What can say is it’s impossible to try and ignore what he said during his testimony. He first spoke of his early upbringing, something he’s only hinted at over the years. He spoke of cruel abuse at the hands of his mother Betty Sue. He spoke of how she made fun of him for having a lazy eye as a little boy. Objects were thrown. Punches and slaps made con tact with face, leading to Johnny as a child and then teenager, flinching every time his mother would walk into the room, as a result to her unpredictable behavior. He spoke of how his father was a kind and gentle man who more often than not just took Betty Sue’s abuse, always afraid to leave because of her threats of committed suicide, until finally he’d had enough and finally walked away from the marriage, leaving Betty Sue in a depressive state.

These stories of childhood abuse is important to talk about because it shows Johnny Depp is no stranger to suffering abuse at the hands of an important female figure in his life. He even said in his testimony that he felt he in many ways had married his mother, without intending to. This is important. Many victims of childhood abuse will move through a relationship that is familiar to them, whether they realize they’re doing it or not. Johnny Depp said how this was part of the reason he stayed in his marriage with Amber Heard for as long as he did, he didn’t want to give up, very much in the way his father did want to give up on his mother. But he did get out of this marriage and it came at a very high price.

The exact words he used when asked what he had lost as a result to these allegations are words that say all that needs to be said. “Nothing less than everything”.

He spoke of the movie roles he lost, the Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them franchise, his role as Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In many ways he was determined to be guilty until proven innocent, which I personally have to say is absolutely despicable, especially knowing what we know now in regards to the evidence that points to Amber Heard being the abuser in this situation.

She was the one to demean him. She was the one who told him he was a fat old man with no class when he was offered the deal with Dior. She was the one who tried to isolate him from his children, all the while telling him he was a bad parent who didn’t know how to parent, even though she herself didn’t have any children at the time of their marriage. All of this points to a clinging, demanding woman who can’t handle it when things around her don’t pan out the way she wants. Nothing has shown that Johnny Depp was the one who tried to isolate her or hurt her. She is the one who has admitted to hitting him on more than one occasion. She couldn’t even promise she wouldn’t be violent again if they got into another fight. This is not normal behavior in the slightest. This is a woman who is very mentally unwell, and she just refuses to see it.

Johnny Depp also spoke of the physical fights that happened with Amber Heard. How she threw vodka bottles at him, resulting in one hitting his hand and severing his finger. There are pictures of the bruises on Johnny’s face, multiple photos of multiple bruises and injuries that show he was taking a constant beating from someone. Johnny also spoke of how Amber Heard never could walk away from an argument, and she would never let him walking away from the arguments, using every tactic of manipulation to get him to stay; one of these tactics being she would kill herself if he left, very much like his own mother would threaten Johnny Depp’s father would.

In short, it’s easy to say that in more way than one, the sins of his mother have come back to haunt Johnny Depp in the worst ways imaginable.

It’s hard to say what way the jury will swing in regards to this case and the final decision of who they favor or what they determine with the evidence that’s been presented to them. I know what I personally hope they will come to, that they will see through Amber Heard’s act and decide to rule in Johnny Depp’s favor. However, I’m not on the jury, I don’t know any of those jurors, so I can’t know firsthand as to know what way they will ultimately swing. What I do hope will happen should things not rule in Johnny’s favor would be the world following this case seeing the truth and demanding that he receives the justice of being able to work again, of being able to do the art he enjoys. All the evidence has pointed at Amber being the aggressor, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a long list of petitions to have Amber Heard to either lose the movie roles she currently has, or stop her from getting work in the future.

One could say I’m being too harsh on Amber Heard when I don’t even know her. That would be fair. I’m only going where the evidence is leading, as well as my own experiences as a survivor of multiple abusive relationships.

I’ve been in these kinds of relationships where you are the victim of gas lighting for pointing out the things that hurt you. I’ve been in relationships where I’ve been laughed at or picked on for the things I enjoy, leading me to want to change everything about myself that my partners didn’t like. Thankfully none of the abusive relationships I’ve been in never got to the point of violence, but that didn’t mean what I went through wasn’t deeply traumatic or didn’t have an impact on my current relationship. This kind of abuse follows you. It leads you to thinking you can’t leave because you’re unworthy of anything better, when really you deserve so much more. Abuse is easier than one might think, especially when there is a history of childhood abuse in one’s upbringing, which definitely seems like the case with Johnny Depp. Also, there’s a more unnerving detail that brings me to my conclusions and one could call this a predisposed bias, Amber Heard reminds me of each of the abusive partners I’ve been with. It’s a gut level revulsion I can’t completely explain. And honestly, unless you’ve been in one of these kinds of relationships, you really can’t understand it.

Think what you want about this entire courtroom drama. All I know is I hope this can at least start the conversation of men being abused by their girlfriends or wives.