Johnny Depp Opens Up About Being Abused By His Mother: 'She Taught Me How Not To Raise Kids'

Yahoo

08-07-2025

In a revealing interview, Johnny Depp opened up about enduring a violent and emotionally abusive childhood and the sense of betrayal he felt after being dropped by Hollywood.
He reflected on being abruptly removed from the "Fantastic Beasts" franchise and being deserted by close friends during his legal battles with ex-wife Amber Heard.
Despite professional fallout and personal pain, Johnny Depp found vindication after winning his 2022 defamation trial.
Depp opened up about the lasting scars from his abusive childhood and the turbulent period he faced after being pushed out of Hollywood.
Now 62, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star reflected on the torment he endured at the hands of his late mother, Betty Sue Palmer, who passed away in 2016 at age 81.
"She beat me with a f-cking stick, a f-cking shoe, an ashtray, a phone, it didn't matter, man," he told The Telegraph. "But I thank her for that."
Depp, who shares two children, Lily-Rose, 26, and Jack, 23, with former partner Vanessa Paradis, said his mother's behavior taught him what he wanted to avoid as a father.
"She taught me how not to raise kids. Just do the exact opposite of what she did," he said.
The actor first opened up about these traumatic experiences during his 2022 $100 million defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.
In court, Depp denied all allegations of abuse, and the case became a media firestorm that left both actors sidelined by major studios.
"In our house, we were never exposed to any type of safety or security, the only thing to do was stay out of the line of fire," he said while on the stand.
"My mother was quite unpredictable. She had the ability to be as cruel as anyone can be with all of us," Depp added.
After moving from Kentucky to Florida, Depp's family lived in a motel for nearly a year. The physical and emotional toll of his mother's behavior left lasting marks.
"Physical violence, physical abuse. That was a constant," Depp recalled. "We were all somewhat shell-shocked. She'd walked past, you'd shield yourself because you didn't know what would happen."
He added: "She could become quite violent, and she was quite violent, and she was quite cruel. There was physical abuse, certainly, which could be in the form of an ash tray being flung at you, or you'd get beat with a high heeled shoe, or a telephone, or whatever's handy."
While the physical violence Depp endured at the hands of his mother was harrowing, he revealed that it was the emotional turmoil that left the deepest scars.
"The verbal abuse, the psychological abuse, was almost worse than the beatings," he explained. "The beatings were just physical pain. The physical pain, you learn to deal with. You learn to accept it. You learn to deal with it."
In the same interview, Depp addressed the abrupt end of his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the "Fantastic Beasts" series.
Despite already filming scenes for "The Crimes of Grindelwald" in 2018, he said the decision to remove him was swift and unexpected.
"It literally stopped in a millisecond," he told the publication. "Like, while I was doing the movie. They said we'd like you to resign. But what was really in my head was they wanted me to retire."
Refusing to be erased, Depp said his response was defiant: "F-ck you. There's far too many of me to kill. If you think you can hurt me more than I've already been hurt, you're gravely mistaken."
Personal betrayals compounded Depp's professional challenges amid his legal battle with Heard.
Just last month, the actor opened up about feeling "deserted" by three of his closest friends after abuse allegations emerged from his turbulent divorce.
Reflecting on that time, Depp, speaking to the Sunday Times, said: "I'll tell you what hurts. There are people, and I'm thinking of three, who did me dirty. Those people were at my kids' parties, throwing them in the air."
He continued: "Look, I understand people who could not stand up [for me] because the most frightening thing to them was making the right choice."
Adding to the sting, Depp's longtime agent of 30 years, Tracey Jacobs, whom he fired in 2016, later testified against him during his defamation trial.
Jacobs claimed studios had grown "reluctant" to hire the actor due to his habitual tardiness.
Depp responded pointedly: "My loyalty is the last thing anybody could question. I was with one agent for 30 years, but she spoke in court about how difficult I was."
Despite the personal and professional damage, Depp found redemption in the courtroom.
After losing a libel case in the UK, he took Heard to court for defamation in the U.S. and won. The trial, which captivated the world, concluded in June 2022, with the jury ruling in his favor.
The "jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled," he said following the verdict, per the Daily Mail. "Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that."