Pirates of the Caribbean Actor Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Are Fighting Over $50 Million in Damages

If you’ve ever watched the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, you’ve probably noticed how soused Johnny Depp gets as the famous Captain Jack Sparrow. But you may not know that he once had a drug addiction, or that he was sober for years, until he had to use a detox program.

Depp’s alleged drug use was one of the main points of his lawsuit against Amber Heard, who filed a domestic abuse lawsuit against him last month. They are battling over $50 million in damages.

The case is in the court system, with a five-week trial scheduled in Fairfax, Virginia. But the two actors are going to have to wait a while for the jury to decide. In the meantime, they’re suing each other for defamation. Johnny Depp alleges that Amber Heard defamed him by writing an op-ed in the Washington Post in late 2018. She wrote that he was “drunk, abusive and violent,” and that she had cheated on him with James Franco. However, a judge has ruled that the allegations are “substantially true.”

While the jury is still out on whether Johnny Depp was defamed, he has admitted that he has used drugs and that he has abused alcohol. He said that he once abused an opioid, and that he had used pills, cocaine, and vodka. His attorneys have tried to show that he exaggerated his substance use, and that his texts to Amber Heard were grossly overstated.

On the third day of the trial, Johnny Depp was cross-examined by Amber Heard’s attorney. Heard’s team used a barrage of messages to illustrate how violent and aggressive Depp was. Some of them contained images of Depp breaking objects and pouring wine. Other messages featured Depp fantasizing about killing Heard.

According to Heard’s attorneys, Depp threw objects at her and shouted obscenities at her. Heard also recorded videos of him slamming a cabinet and slamming a cupboard. In one video, Depp appears to throw a glass of wine at Heard. Heard said that she had to tell him to put the knife down. This incident was recorded two months after they filed for divorce, which caused the filming of the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie to be delayed.

Depp’s defense attorneys also highlighted several incendiary texts he sent to Paul Bettany. Bettany is a fellow actor. Among the messages were ones that said he wanted to burn Heard and a desire to drown her. During the libel trial against The Sun newspaper in 2020, the texts were also exposed. One text described Heard as a “fucking blackout” and a “ugly mate.” Another message referred to her as a “French extortionist,” and another said she was an “ex-c*nt.”

Johnny Depp said he and Amber Heard were married for 15 months, but that he had gotten drunk on a private plane that had flown from Boston to Los Angeles. Heard had filed for divorce, and said that Depp abused her physically. Ultimately, the couple settled for $7 million in a divorce settlement.