Johnny Depp makes rare comments about raising his kids Lily-Rose and Jack with ex Vanessa Paradis
Johnny Depp is proud to be a family man.
The 'Pirates of the Caribbean' actor, 62, looked back on raising his two kids, Lily-Rose, 26, and Jack, 22, with ex Vanessa Paradis in France in a new interview with The Sunday Times.
'This is a portrait of my daughter, Lily-Rose,' Depp, 62, told the interviewer about the painting hanging behind him.
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11 Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis at the 2009 Academy Awards.
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11 Throwback photos of Lily-Rose Depp and Jack Depp.
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'I never finished it,' the actor continued. 'She was ten then, and 25 now.'
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He went on, 'Years get away from us, don't they? I'm of the empty-nest syndrome.'
11 Lily-Rose Depp, Johnny Depp, Amber Heard at the Stella McCartney 2016 Fall Presentation party.
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Depp and Paradis, 52, welcomed Lily-Rose in 1999 and Jack in 2002. Lily-Rose is an actress best known for her roles in 'The Idol' and 'Nosferatu,' while Jack lives his life out of the spotlight as a bartender in Paris.
The former couple, who dated from 1998 to 2012, raised their kids in an estate near St. Tropez before they later moved to Los Angeles.
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11 Lily-Rose Depp attends 'The Idol' photocall at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
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11 Lily-Rose Depp attends a 2025 NBA playoffs game in Los Angeles.
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When asked what he misses about having his children around, Depp replied: 'Oh man, my kids growing up in the south of France in their youth?'
'I was Papa,' he recalled. 'I cannot tell you how much I loved being Papa. Then, suddenly, Papa was out the window. I was Dad. But Papa was awesome and I'm getting old enough for Papa to possibly come back. Some motherf—er's going to have to call me Papa!'
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11 Johnny Depp with Vanessa Paradis at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards.
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Depp also explained that he barely spends time in the US anymore and mostly splits his time between the UK and the Bahamas.
'Truly, the first time I felt I had a home was the place in the south of France where Vanessa and I raised the kiddies,' he told the outlet. 'That's the only place that ever felt like home.'
11 Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis at the 'Sleepy Hollow' premiere in 1999.
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Elsewhere in the interview, Depp made rare comments about his relationship with his ex-wife Amber Heard, three years after their televised defamation trial that culminated with the jury siding with Depp on June 1, 2022.
'So, what were my initial dealings with what we call love? Clearly obtuse,' he said to The Sunday Times.
11 Johnny Depp and Amber Heard at 'The Rum Diary' premiere in London in 2011.
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'And what that means is, if you're a sucker like I am, sometimes you look in a person's eye and see some sadness, some lonely thing and you feel you can help that person,' the 'Sweeney Todd' star continued.
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'But no good deed goes unpunished, because there are those who, when you try to love and help them, will start to give you an understanding of what that malaise, that perturbance was in their eyes. It manifests itself in other ways,' Depp added. 'And the interesting thing is that it is merely a sliver of my life I have chosen to explore.'
Depp and Heard, 39, split in 2016 after less than two years of marriage.
11 Johnny Depp in court during his defamation trial against Amber Heard.
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11 Amber Heard after losing her case against Johnny Depp.
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The 'Alice in Wonderland' actor sued Heard over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed that didn't name him but indirectly accused him of domestic abuse.
The jury ultimately awarded Depp $10.35 million in damages, while Heard won $2 million in her countersuit. The 'Aquaman' star filed to appeal the verdict in the case, but she later withdrew and then settled. She agreed to pay Depp $1 million.
11 Amber Heard and Johnny Depp attend The Art of Elysium 2016 HEAVEN Gala presented by Vivienne Westwood.
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Speaking about the accusations and the trial with The Sunday Times, Depp said: 'Look, it had gone far enough. I knew I'd have to semi-eviscerate myself. Everyone was saying, 'It'll go away!' But I can't trust that. What will go away? The fiction pawned around the f—ing globe? No, it won't.'
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'If I don't try to represent the truth it will be like I've actually committed the acts I am accused of, and my kids will have to live with it,' he continued.
Depp added, 'So the night before the trial in Virginia I didn't feel nervous. If you don't have to memorize lines, if you're just speaking the truth? Roll the dice.'
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