With accusations from both sides, fans want to know the truth about claims Johnny Depp cheated on Amber Heard a day after their wedding and if he’s ever been unfaithful in their relationship.
Depp and Heard met in 2009 while filming their 2011 movie, The Rum Diary. “That moment, was, it was, it felt like something, it felt like something I should not be feeling,” Depp recalled of a shower kissing scene between him and Heard at a court hearing in 2022. “I think there was something in the kiss in the shower that was real.” The two reunited at the promotional tour for The Rum Diary in 2011. Depp and Heard started dating after his 2012 breakup with Vanessa Paradis. They got engaged in 2014. “Of course they couldn’t be happier to be engaged and excited to share the rest of their lives together,” a source told People at the time. “Amber has really taken well to the kids and really enjoys spending time with them. And she’s even taken Lily shopping on her own for some bonding time.”
The two married in 2015. After 15 months of marriage, Heard filed for divorce in 2016. She obtained a temporary restraining order against Depp, claiming that he abused her while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Depp denied the accusations, and a $7 million settlement was reached out of court in August 2016. Heard pledged to donate the money to the ACLU and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. “Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm,” the two aid in a joint statement at the time.
In 2018, Heard wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post about her experience with domestic abuse. While she didn’t mention Depp by name, many believed that the post was about her ex-husband. Depp sued Heard for $50 million for defamation in 2019, claiming that the op-ed cost him acting jobs, including his role in Walt Disney Pictures’ Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The trial for the case started in 2022. Since then, the world has seen Depp and Heard throw insults and rumors at each other, including Heard’s allegation that Depp cheated on her a day after their wedding. Did Johnny Depp cheat on Amber Heard? Read on for what we know.
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Did Johnny Depp cheat on Amber Heard?
Did Johnny Depp cheat on Amber Heard? Heard accused Depp of cheating on her during Depp’s defamation trial against her in May 2022. During her testimony, Heard claimed that, soon after her and Depp’s trip to Australia in May 2015, she discovered her then-husband’s unlocked iPad while he was “passed out” and found messages from a woman Depp dated before her. She alleged that Depp cheated on her with the unnamed woman a day after their wedding in February 2015. “He was texting this woman that he had had a relationship with on and off kind of at the beginning of our relationship, so I recognized the name. But the date was right after the wedding,” Heard said at the time. “I saw that he had gone to her house after we had gotten married. Upon touching down in Los Angeles, I think it was the next day he went to this woman’s house that he has this sexual relationship with.”
After she found the messages, Heard “freaked out” and “immediately confronted” Depp, which led to an argument of shouting and “pushing each other.” “I didn’t care in that moment if he did kill me, which was likely, confronting him at that stage of our lives. I didn’t even care anymore; he had already ripped my heart out,” Heard said, adding that the alleged infidelity “was unbelievably painful.” She continued, “I remember being so mad at him for cheating on me. … It just felt like everything came crashing down. I was so hurt.”
During the trial, Heard’s sister, Whitney Henriquez, also accused Depp of almost hitting her after an argument about his alleged infidelity. Henriquez testified that Heard woke her up in the middle of the night at Depp’s house in Los Angeles and said, Can you believe he’s cheating on me?” which led her to confront Depp in the kitchen, where he allegedly confessed to the affair. I can tell he’s clearly drunk and he has a bottle of alcohol in front of him as well,” Henriquez said. She continued, “He’s talking to me about how Amber found these text messages between him and a woman… and then he starts saying that this woman was meaningless, it wasn’t anything special, she’s nothing special but then he immediately shifted to ‘Amber pushed me. Amber made me do it. Of course I’m cheating on her’.”
Henriquez testified that Heard then came into the room and started shouting “expletives” at Depp. “She was calling him old and fat. It was a fight. They were saying really nasty things to one another,” she said. Henriquez told the court that she then left the kitchen to go upstairs to a mezzanine level overlooking the kitchen with Heard and Depp’s nurse, Debbie Lloyn, whom she alleged that Depp threw a Red Bull can at. “Depp then threw a Red Bull can at Lloyd’s back, which the nurse didn’t seem to notice, Henriquez said. “I’m at the top of the stairs, with my back to the stairs, and that’s when Johnny runs up the stairs. And again, I’m facing Amber. He comes up behind me and strikes me in the back…he hits me in the back, I hear Amber yell, ‘don’t hit my fucking sister.’” She testified that Heard then hit Depp and “lands one.”
Heard testified that she hit Depp because she feared he would hurt her sister or that her sister would fall down the stairs. Depp denied during the trial that he threw the can and struck Heard. Henriquez testified that after Heard hit Depp, she could hear Depp cursing and smashing items. She also recalled her seeing sister’s clothing racks overturned and wardrobe destroyed. She also testified that Depp asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement after the fight. “It’s basically, my understanding is, a contract to keep things private,” Henriquez said. “To keep your mouth shut, essentially.”
There were also rumors that Depp cheated with Heard on his ex-girlfriend, Vanessa Paradis, whom he shares daughter Lily-Rose and Jack with. During his defamation trial in 2022, Depp revealed that he started developing feelings for Heard after they filmed their intimate shower scene in 2011’s The Rum Diary while he was still with Paradis in 2009. “During the scene in the shower, where we kissed. I felt something I shouldn’t have, because at that time she had her partner and I had Vanessa. It all started with that kiss in the shower,” said. Depp also revealed during the trial that he and Heard also shared “kisses” off set. “We shared a glass of wine and kisses,” Depp said, recalling a time he and Heard spent an evening together in his dressing room. “Amber wanted to stay, but I realized it was best to leave it at that.”
Heard testified, however, that her and Depp’s romantic relationship didn’t officially start until they reunited for the press tour for The Rum Diary in 2012, and Depp invited Heard to his hotel room, where they both revealed that they had split from the respective partners they were with while they filmed The Rum Diary. Heard recalled her “instant” chemistry with Depp and testified that when she went to leave that night, Depp grabbed her face and kissed her. “Then we fell in love,” she said. Despite their “whirlwind romance” while on tour, Heard testified that Depp told her their relationship had to be “under the radar.” She claimed that Depp told her that his breakup with Paradis wasn’t known and that she would be labeled a “homewrecker” if they started dating in public. Heard also testified that Depp told her he and Paradis hadn’t slept in the same bed together for a year.
A source also told Radar Online in 2014 that Depp’s ex-girlfriend Winona Ryder—whom he dated from 1989 to 1993—had a positive relationship with him until she heard rumors he “hooked up” with Heard while he was still with Paradis. “[Winona] had a respectful relationship with Johnny for years [after their split], but she soured on any idea of an acting reunion after Johnny hooked up with Amber,” the insider said. The source explained that Ryder’s opinion of Depp changed because she believed he started dating Heard while he was still with Paradis. “She’s pulled a 180 on her opinion of Johnny and his cronies because she thinks it’s a sad cliché that he’d dump his long-term baby mama for a woman in her twenties,” the insider said.
Depp and Paradis met in 1998 while he was filming his movie, The Ninth Gate, in France. The two met at the Hotel Costes in Paris, where Depp was at with his director, Roman Palinski. “She was wearing a dress with an exposed back and I saw that back and that neck, and then she turned around and I saw those eyes, and — boom!” Depp told The Daily Mail in 2011 about the moment he and Paradis met . “My life as a single man was done.” The connection was strong, as he added, “You have this feeling — I can’t really explain what it was, but I had it when I met her. I saw her across a room and thought: ‘What’s happening to me?’”
Depp and Paradis, a singer and actress, went on to welcome two kids together: daughter Lily-Rose in 1999 and son Jack in 2002. In an interview with Extra in 2010, Depp explained why he and Paradis never married. “I never found myself needing that piece of paper,” he said. “Marriage is really from soul to soul, heart to heart. You don’t need somebody to say, okay you’re married.” In a 2006 interview with ABC News, Depp called his children a “real foundation, a real strong place to stand in life, in work, in everything. …You cannot plan the kind of deep love that results in children. Fatherhood was not a conscious decision. It was part of the wonderful ride I was on. It was destiny. All the math finally worked.”
In 2011, Depp opened up about his relationship with Paradis after 13 years together. “I see that the children are happy, healthy and seem to be on the right path in life,” Depp told The Daily Mail at the time. “And then I look at Vanessa, who’s incredibly supportive, loving and talented in all sorts of ways. She and I have been together for nearly 14 years, and, well, I can hardly believe it. It only seems like yesterday that we met.” He continued, “A glass or two of wine before dinner is my favorite thing, watching the sunset and the kiddies playing nearby. It’s perfection.’
A year later, a representative for Depp confirmed that he and Paradis had “amicably” split. “Please respect their privacy and, more importantly, the privacy of their children,” the rep said. According to The Sun, Paradis received $150 million after the split.
In a statement in 2020, Paradis defended Depp against his Heard’s abuse allegations against him. “I have known Johnny for 25 years. We have 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,” she said. On movie sets the actors, directors and entire crews adore him because he is humble and respectful to everyone, as well as being one of the best actors we’ve seen.” She continued, “I am aware of the allegations which Amber Heard has publicly accused Johnny of for more than four years now. This is nothing like the true Johnny I have known, and from my personal experience of many years, I can say he was never violent or abusive to me.”
Paradis went on to call Heard’s domestic violence allegations as “outrageous” and “really distressing.” She continued, “I have seen that these outrageous statements have been really distressing and also caused damage to his career because unfortunately, people have gone on believing these false facts. This is so upsetting as he has helped so many persons in his personal and professional life with kindness and generosity.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE (7233) for confidential support.
