Manager who looked after Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, their smuggled dogs and their trashed mansion was former royal man
A new book documenting the Hollywood stars' tempestuous relationship reveals that British citizen Ben King, who worked as Depp's butler and house manager, began work at Buckingham Palace as a 20-year-old.
He also worked for Nelson Mandela and Andrew Lloyd Webber before being hired as Depp's right-hand man, according to Hollywood Vampires: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard and the Celebrity Exploitation Machine.
And King had a central role in the hullabaloo over the A-list couple's smuggled dogs. The comical scandal blew up – drawing in government ministers and making headlines around the world – after it came to light that Heard illegally brought their two teacup Yorkies, Pistol and Boo, into Australia in 2015.
Described in the book as clean and elegant with impeccable manners, King and the drug-addicted Depp seemed an improbable pairing, but the butler employed the same approach he took with the late Queen Elizabeth.
'Trust and discretion are the two things required for the job,' he told the book's authors, journalists Kelly Loudenberg and Makiko Wholey.
Yet it seems discretion was sorely lacking when King took the dogs to Queensland grooming parlour, Happy Dogz, while Depp was living in the state and filming the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise Dead Men Tell No Tales in 2015.
Requesting the salon trim back the dogs' hair and style their faces, King revealed to the staff that Pistol and Boo belonged to none other than Johnny Depp.
Thrilled to be grooming two celebrity pets, the salon owner promptly posted the pictures of the dogs to Facebook, alerting Barnaby Joyce, then Minister of Agriculture.
While Joyce ordered the dogs be taken back to the US immediately or they'd be euthanised, King was frantic with fear that he'd lose his job, according to Hollywood Vampires. Depp reportedly told his butler not to worry and one of his team smuggled the Yorkies back to the US inside a hatbox placed on the actor's private jet.
The fascinating relationship between the Hollywood stars and their entourage is laid bare in the book, which reveals how Depp demanded his team procure drugs for him and how they were left to clean up after he and Heard all but destroyed a rented Gold Coast mansion during a vicious argument.
An extra hotel room was always rented in case a fight broke out between the couple and they needed to be sent to their own corners.
Depp was already in an agitated state before Heard arrived Down Under to join him and texted his assistant Nathan Holmes asking for drugs. He said he'd been sober from booze for nine months but he was still taking ecstasy, according to the book.
Holmes reportedly told his boss that 'the guy', a film crew member, could only carry two grams because if caught he faced two years in an Australia prison.
Depp apparently exploded: 'Any ONE of ANY of you guys start to lecture me … I just do not want to hear it … No stupid bullshit about sappy bollocks.'
It was Holmes and King who were faced with cleaning up after the couple's vicious row which led Depp to losing the top of his finger. The pair had to restore the damage to the house, estimated to be up to $300,000, without its owner, Aussie motorcycling champion Mick Doohan, learning about the drama.
As part of the operation, King found a woman in the countryside to make a perfect copy of an antique lampshade on which Depp had painted 'Good Luck and Be Careful at the Top'. He also found someone to replace the chunk of marble that had come off the bar in the games room.
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