Johnny Depp is all over the news for suing his ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation, but
his recent relationship woes are just the tip of the iceberg.
What's the story with his first divorce?
And where did all his money go?
Answers, straight ahead.
Johnny Depp first gravitated toward music to escape his volatile home life.
He told Hello!
magazine back in 1997,
"When I was 12, and my parents were always fighting, I had hardly any contact with the
outside world.
As soon as I got my guitar, I locked myself in my room every day after school and did
nothing but play until I fell asleep."
His parents' tumultuous relationship ended in divorce, and Depp became a bit of a nomad.
He told Hello!,
"We moved over 30 times before I finally moved out for good.
That’s probably why I’m always traveling mentally and feel like being somewhere else.
It’s my sense of being out of place in the world."
"It was kind of normal.
We didn't know anything else."
It wasn't just the lack of roots that made Depp's childhood so challenging, however.
His mother, Betty Sue Palmer, was allegedly often emotionally and physically abusive towards
her children.
Depp said in his 2022 defamation trial against Amber Heard that his mom would do things like
throw ashtrays at him and his siblings or strike them with high heel shoes or even a
telephone.
"She could become quite violent, and she was quite violent.
And she was quite cruel."
Depp said that his mother's lashing out was unpredictable, and she would also instruct
his father to hit him with his belt — though his father was, by nature, a "kind" and reserved
man, according to the actor.
While Johnny Depp was involved with his band, The Kids, he met makeup artist Lori Anne Allison,
the sister of a band mate.
In 1983, when Depp was only 20, he and Allison married in Florida.
In the hopes of hitting musical success, Depp, his band, and his new wife moved to Los Angeles,
and it was on the West coast that Allison connected Depp to Nicolas Cage.
During this introduction, according to Rolling Stone, Cage suggested that Depp work on movies
and TV shows to make extra cash.
While the acting worked out, the marriage didn't, with the couple divorcing two years
later.
Depp has frequently spoken about a sense of loneliness in his life, despite consistent
romantic relationships and friendships, and this sense of isolation may also have permeated
his first marriage to Lori Anne Allison.
He admitted to Hello!
in 1997,
"I've always felt like an outsider.
I feel lost so often that I wish I could just take off and not have to worry about the world."
The actor added that he struggled with, in his words, "relating to other people's way
of living" and despite the success he found, it took a toll on relationships, too.
He told the tabloid,
"I suppose part of my problem is that I'll always have this image of myself as a 17-year-old
geek working at a gas station."
Depp's ex-wife spoke up in 2016, following Amber Heard's accusations of abuse, to say
that Depp had always been gentle and kind with her, according to TMZ, even calling him
a "soft person."
Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder's real-life meet-cute occurred at the "Great Balls of Fire!"
premiere in 1989, and they went on to co-star in the classic "Edward Scissorhands" the following
year.
The pair were inseparable for four years, with Depp telling People magazine,
"I love her so much.
I don't know what I would do without her.
I love that girl.
I love her.
I love her almost more than I love myself."
While they reportedly split in 1993 because of public pressure and the fact that they
simply grew apart, the breakup was devastating for both of them.
Ryder told Elle in 2009 that she suffered an "extra-large breakdown" and called it her
"first real break-up, the first heartbreak."
She added,
"Everybody else just thought I had everything in the world, but inside I was completely
lost."
For Depp, the experience was equally brutal.
Director Tim Burton said that Depp would show up to the "Ed Wood" set in tears.
Burton once said, per the Mirror,
"I felt so bad.
I asked him why it happened but all he said was, 'It wasn't her fault, it was mine.'"
Depp even had a "Winona Forever" tattoo on his shoulder, but he later changed it to "Wino
Forever," a move he forecasted in an interview on Australian TV.
"I could add to it, I could subtract.
I could make it 'wino forever.'"
Later, when Depp began dating Kate Moss, Tim Burton felt there was something off, explaining,
"​​I felt weird to be around him like he wasn't acting like Johnny anymore.
It's almost like Winona took Johnny's soul, Johnny's love."
Johnny Depp's mother, Betty Sue Palmer, was not only allegedly abusive towards her children,
but she was also said to be antagonistic towards Depp's father, John Christopher Depp.
While testifying in court in 2022, the actor described their relationship and claimed that
his mother was aggressive towards his father, a "shy" man who never fought back.
Instead, Johnny said that his dad always was gracious and well-mannered towards his mother.
Eventually, Depp's father packed his things and left when the future star was 15, telling
his son that he was now the man of the house, and leaving Johnny with an unsettled feeling
that he wasn't ready.
His father's departure put Betty Sue into a depressive episode that resulted in a suicide
attempt.
Johnny said that he walked into their living room and saw his mother drooling and moving
erratically.
"So, instantly, I knew that something was dreadfully wrong."
Depp told the court,
"As I was about to run and call [911], the front door busted open, and my uncle and two
paramedics came in and threw her on the gurney and whisked her out of the house to get her
to the hospital to pump her stomach."
His mother survived then, but died decades later in May 2016 following years of ailing
health.
Even though they had a tough relationship, her death was still hard on her famous son.
Accepting an award for his support of a cancer charity in 2020, he told the crowd,
"She was a hellcat.
She was mean, but she was funny."
Johnny Depp was accused of cultural appropriation and inaccurate statements about his heritage
in 2011.
The actor told Inside Movies,
"I guess I have some Native American somewhere down the line.
My great grandmother was quite a bit of Native American, she grew up Cherokee or maybe Creek
Indian.
Makes sense in terms of coming from Kentucky, which is rife with Cherokee and Creek."
Depp's speculation did not go down well with Native American communities, with some people
arguing that there was no substantive evidence of Depp having that heritage.
Things became more uncomfortable when Depp was cast as Tonto, a Native American character
in Disney's "The Lone Ranger."
Actor Sonny Skyhawk spoke to Indian Country in 2013 and voiced his discomfort with the
situation, especially with Disney.
Skyhawk said,
"American Indians in Film and Television's argument is not so much with Johnny Depp,
a charlatan at his best, as it is with the machinations of Disney proper.
[...] Johnny Depp 'playing Indian' doesn't bother me as much as the efforts of a conglomerate
force feeding the Indian community that he is 'Indian.'"
Things took another controversial turn in 2019, when Dior made Depp the face of fragrance
campaign, where Depp was styled in a Native American setting.
Dior removed the campaign, but not before critics on Twitter spoke up, including Indigenous
Environmental Network organizer Dallas Goldtooth, who called the ads "absurd."
Over the span of his career, Johnny Depp made $650 million dollars, according to Variety,
but that money is largely gone, leaving Depp with a net worth of $100 million dollars,
as of the making of this video.
While that's still a considerable amount of money, what happened to the other $550 million?
Depp, apparently, would like to know the same.
"The star who began his career with 'Nightmare on Elm Street' now facing his own legal nightmare."
The actor sued The Management Group in 2017, per CBS News, because they allegedly neglected
to pay his taxes for 13 years but continued to charge him millions of dollars in fees.
Depp settled the lawsuit in 2018 for an undisclosed amount.
While the details of the case were confidential, Depp did disclose a great deal about his personal
finances in an interview with Rolling Stone and quelled some rumors, only to share that
he had spent in excess of what people had even imagined.
Stories floated that Depp spent $30,000 a month on wine, and he said,
"It's insulting to say that I spent $30,000 on wine.
Because it was far more."
Another story was circulating that he spent $3 million to shoot Hunter S. Thompson's ashes
from a cannon.
Depp explained,
"It was not $3 million to shoot Hunter into the f---ing sky.
It was $5 million."
When he split from longtime partner and mother of his two children, Vanessa Paradis, Depp
gave her $150 million.
Then, when he got divorced from Amber Heard, he gave her $7 million in the settlement,
so his separations made a huge dent in his net worth.
Johnny Depp has had an ongoing struggle with substance abuse that he's been surprisingly
candid about.
River Phoenix died of an overdose outside of Depp's Los Angeles club, the Viper Room,
in 1993, and Depp later told Hello!
in 1997 that the tragic death was a wakeup call.
He told the tabloid,
"Drinking and taking drugs and getting high is how we try to numb our emotions.
You don't want to feel any pain ... you don't want to feel anything.
I was painfully aware of what I was doing to myself and somehow didn't care."
Depp went on to say it felt like he was throwing his life away.
While Depp tried to get back on track, his relationship with drugs and alcohol came up
again throughout his life.
His relationship with Vanessa Paradis helped him turn things around again.
He told Rolling Stone in 2008,
"I'm a dumbass, and I poisoned myself for years.
Now I understand things better."
"Vanessa and my kids gave me life."
However, his excessive substance use came up again in his relationship with Amber Heard,
and it was a subject in his defamation trial against Heard in 2022.
Depp's physician, Dr. David Kipper, spoke to the courtroom and explained how Depp had
been trying to get sober.
Kipper said that the star was anxious about detoxifying from "alcohol, opiates, benzodiazepines,
and stimulants," but knew he needed to do it.
Johnny Depp has had run-ins with the law on and off since he became famous.
In 1989, Vancouver police reported that Depp allegedly had a physical altercation with
hotel security after guests complained about noise coming from a party in another room.
He was booked on assault and mischief charges.
Then in 1994, when Depp was staying at the Mark Hotel in New York City with model girlfriend
Kate Moss, he got enraged about a friend's betrayal and destroyed the room.
He had to pay nearly $10,000 in damages, according to the New York Times.
The police report stated:
"We opened the door and there was Depp sitting there, smoking a cigarette, cool and calm.
[...] There was glass all over the place and furniture upside down and broken table legs."
In 1999, Depp was arrested and spent four hours in custody, per BBC News, when he had
an alleged physical altercation with paparazzi outside of Mirabelle restaurant in London.
In response to having his photo taken, Depp reportedly used a piece of wood to intimidate
the photographers.
Johnny Depp's once-stellar career took a sharp turn after ex-wife Amber Heard published her
op-ed claiming that she was a domestic and sexual abuse survivor.
While she didn't explicitly name Depp in the piece, it appeared evident that she was talking
about him.
After the Sun called him a "wife-beater," Depp sued the outlet, but he lost, with a
judge deciding that the article was "substantially true," according to BBC News.
Separately, Depp sued Heard, and she countersued, landing them in court in Virginia in 2022,
where Depp denied any allegations of physical or sexual abuse.
When asked what the consequences were of her allegations, Depp testified that he "lost
nothing less than everything."
Depp also shared in court about the changes in his relationship with Heard, and how painful
it was to live through such a change in an intimate connection, where he had previously
disclosed his most vulnerable self.
Claiming that Heard would "verbally decimate" him or "send [him] into a ... tailspin of
confusion and depression," Depp alleged that she constantly told him how wrong he was about
things and called him names.
To cope, Depp said that he removed himself from those situations, something he had practiced
as a child when dealing with his own mother.
"Because there's only so much your ears can hear."
Apart from the alleged insight into his and Heard's ill-fated marriage, one of the most
evident takeaways from the defamation case has appeared to be what a challenging childhood
Depp had and his seemingly lonely adulthood, even as a superstar.