Johnny Depp has reflected on his abusive childhood as well as his ‘dumping’ by Hollywood in an emotional new interview.
The Pirates Of The Caribbean star, 62, recalled how his mother Betty Sue Palmer, who died in 2016 aged 81, was volatile, unpredictable and often violent.
He told The Telegraph: ‘She beat me with a f****** stick, a f***** shoe, an ashtray, a phone, it didn’t matter, man. But I thank her for that’.
Johnny, who shares daughter Lily-Rose, 26, and son Jack, 23, with ex Vanessa Paradis, continued: ‘She taught me how not to raise kids. Just do the exact opposite of what she did’.
Johnny previously spoke about his traumatic childhood when he took the stand in his $100M defamation trial in 2022 against ex-wife Amber Heard, 39, who accused him of abuse, which he strenuously denied.
The couple’s alleged violent relationship sent shockwaves throughout the industry and both parties were dropped from work projects at the time.

Johnny Depp, 62, has reflected on his abusive childhood as well as his ‘dumping’ by Hollywood in an emotional new interview

The Pirates Of The Caribbean star recalled how his mother Betty Sue Palmer, who died in 2016 aged 81, was volatile, unpredictable and often violent (pictured together 1990)

He also reflected on the moment he was axed from the Fantastic Beasts franchise (pictured) after being ‘dumped’ by Hollywood amid ex Amber Heard’s allegations of abuse
Johnny was recast in the Fantastic Beasts series by Mads Mikkelsen and has now recalled the moment he axed from the movie amid his Hollywood ‘dumping’.
Despite already filming one scene of the franchise’s second film The Crimes of Grindelwald in 2018 he said ‘It literally stopped in a millisecond,’.
Telling 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’.
He remembered his response being: ‘F*** 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’.
Speaking about his mother in court back in 2022 he said: ‘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 told lawyers from the stand. ‘My mother was quite unpredictable. She had the ability to be as cruel as anyone can be with all of us,’
The family moved from Kentucky to Florida when Depp was seven years-old, where they lived in a motel for nearly a year before his father John Depp found a job.
‘Physical violence, physical abuse. That was a constant. We were all somewhat shell-shocked. She’d walked past, you’d shield yourself because you didn’t know what would happen,’
‘She could become quite violent, and she was quite violent, and she was quite cruel,’ Depp said, chuckling at the memory of his mother’s beatings, ‘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.’

He said ‘She beat me with a f****** stick, a f***** shoe, an ashtray, a phone, it didn’t matter, man. But I thank her for that’ (pictured 1998)

Johnny, who shares daughter Lily-Rose (pictured), and son Jack, 23, with ex Vanessa Paradis , continued: ‘She taught me how not to raise kids. Just do the exact opposite of what she did’

Pictured with his mum, father John Christopher Depp (second from right) and then girlfriend Vanessa Paradis when Johnny received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999

Johnny previously spoke about his traumatic childhood when he took the stand in his $100M defamation trial in 2022 against ex-wife Amber Heard , 39, who accused him of abuse, which he strenuously denied (pictured 2015)
But Johnny said that his mother’s physical attacks were easy to handle compared to the psychological abuse she filled their home with.
‘The verbal abuse, the psychological abuse, was almost worse than the beatings. The beatings were just physical pain,’ the actor added. ‘The physical pain, you learn to deal with. You learn to accept it. You learn to deal with it.’
Last month the actor spoken out about how he was ‘deserted’ by three of his closest friends after he was accused of abuse by his ex-wife.
Johnny married Amber in 2015 after the pair met on set of The Rum Diary (2011). However, she filed for divorce the following year, and it was finalised in 2017.
As well as being axed from jobs, Johnny has now claimed he was also let down by some of the people in his inner circle who attended his children’s birthday parties.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Johnny criticised the actions of three of his close friends and claimed he had been a ‘crash test dummy for the #MeToo movement’.
He 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.’
‘And, look, I understand people who could not stand up [for me], because the most frightening thing to them was making the right choice.’
Johnny’s agent of 30 years who was sacked in 2016, Tracey Jacobs, spoke out against him during the highly publicised defamation trial.
Tracey claimed that studios were ‘reluctant’ to hire Johnny because of his reputation for being late to work.
He said of Tracey: ‘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.’


Johnny (L) was recast in the Fantastic Beasts series by Mads Mikkelsen (R)and has now recalled the moment he learned the news

Last month the actor spoken out about how he was ‘deserted’ by three of his closest friends after he was accused of abuse by his ex-wife (pictured in court May 2022)

As well as being axed from jobs, Johnny has now claimed he was also let down by some of the people in his inner circle who attended his children’s birthday parties.

Johnny and Amber’s publicised legal issues began when he filed a libel lawsuit against The Sun’s publisher and it’s executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article which included claims that he was a ‘wife beater’ (pictured 2015)
During the Depp v. Heard trial that came to an end in June 2022, Johnny received a rally of support from fans at the Fairfax County courtroom in Virginia.
Johnny and Amber’s publicised legal issues began when he filed a libel lawsuit against The Sun’s publisher and it’s executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article which included claims that he was a ‘wife beater.’
But in 2020, the High Court of Justice ruled in favour of The Sun’s publisher and Wootton, but Johnny later sued Amber in 2019 for defamation over a 2018 op-ed article she wrote for The Washington Post.
She countersued her ex-husband in 2020 and the trial officially began in April 2022. Two months later, the jury’s verdict was in favour of Johnny.
At the time, the star had offered his reaction to the ruling and expressed that the ‘jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.’
He star also expressed, ‘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.’
Amber has since moved and settled in Spain – where she raises her three children, a daughter born in 2021 via surrogacy and she announced in May that she had also welcomed twins.
Johnny has also made his return to the big screen following the trial, such as Jeanne du Barry (2023).