Speaking out. Ellen Barkin testified about her relationship with Johnny Depp during his defamation trial with Amber Heard.
The Drop Dead Gorgeous actress, 68, recorded a deposition about her romance with the Oscar nominee, 58, in November 2019 that was played in court on Thursday, May 19. Barkin testified that the duo’s friendship turned “sexual” in 1994, noting that their relationship lasted for several months.
“He was just a jealous man,” she claimed, adding that Depp would ask her: “Where are you going? Who are you going with? What did you do last night?”
The Animal Kingdom star alleged that her ex once got “very, very angry” when he found a scratch on her back. “He insisted it came from me having sex with a person who hasn’t him,” she claimed, adding that Depp exhibited “demanding” and “controlling” behavior during their relationship.
Barkin also testified about times she’d seen the Edward Scissorhands star allegedly under the influence of drugs and alcohol. “He was always drinking and smoking a joint,” she told the court, claiming that Depp also used hallucinogenics.
In one instance, the Emmy winner alleged that the Pirates of the Caribbean star “threw a wine bottle across the hotel room” in her direction during a fight between him and his friends.
Depp previously denied Barkin’s claim about the wine bottle, calling it “untrue” during court proceedings for his libel trial against the U.K. newspaper The Sun. “I do not have an anger management problem,” he said in July 2020.
The Finding Neverland star is suing Heard, 36, for defamation in connection to a 2018 op-ed she published in The Washington Post. In the essay, the Aquaman star did not mention her ex-husband by name but claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
Depp and Heard were married from February 2015 to January 2017. Two days after the Magic Mike XXL actress filed for divorce in May 2016, she accused her then-estranged husband of domestic violence and obtained a temporary restraining order against him.
A rep for the Secret Window actor denied the allegations in a statement at the time, saying: “Given the brevity of this marriage and the most recent and tragic loss of his mother, Johnny will not respond to any of the salacious false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies about his personal life. Hopefully the dissolution of this short marriage will be resolved quickly.”
Heard’s allegations were revisited during the Sun trial, which began in July 2020 after a delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Depp sued the outlet for libel after they referred to him as a “wife beater” in a story. In November 2020, however, the U.K.’s High Court of Justice ruled that The Sun‘s article was not libelous because Heard’s allegations were “substantially true.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
