Johnny Depp tells how his mother’s death made him realise he wanted a divorce from Amber Heard

Betty Sue Palmer died in 2016

Johnny Depp during his defamation trial against Amber Heard at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia on 20 April 2022 (EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Johnny Depp says his mother’s death caused him to realise his marriage to Amber Heard had to end.

Depp was asked about his mother’s passing on Wednesday (20 April) as he testified for a second day in the defamation case opposing him and his ex-wife Heard.

Betty Sue Palmer died in May 2016 after an illness. In the Fairfax County Courthouse on Wednesday, Depp recounted bringing his two children to see her at the hospital.

“At that time she was not functioning. She was not responsive. She was alive still, she was fighting still inside, but she was lying in the bed. ... I brought my kids in to say goodbye. We all spoke into her ear, and then she passed away later,” he said.

Depp added: “When those you love leave, we’re the ones stuck with the pain, with the grieving. But I was glad that my kids got to see her and give her her send-off, I suppose. But it opened my eyes quite a lot to a number of things.”

Asked to name some of the things his mother’s death opened his eyes to, Depp said: “That life is a birdsong. That what feels like 100 years is in fact a second, a milisecond.”

Depp has spoken openly about the childhood abuse and violence he says Palmer exposed him to, telling the court on Tuesday: “She was quite violent and she was quite cruel.”

On Wednesday, the actor said that at the time of Palmer’s passing, he had “made peace with Betty Sue because I understood where she came from, and I understood how difficult her childhood was, and I understood that she had not had the proper training or the proper teaching or the proper background to be anything other than what she had been when we were younger.”

“I forgave her for all that, as one would – should,” he added. “It opened my eyes to the fact that – yes, try, in relationships, whether friendships, whether courtships, whether marriage. Try your best. If it’s not going to work, it’s not going to work.”

Depp said he had then decided that he would call Heard and inform her of Palmer’s death, as well as his intention to file for divorce.

“I very calmly said, look, I’ve made a decision and I think it’s the best thing. I’m going to file for divorce. But I’m not going to cite irreconcilable differences. I’m not going to cite any violence. I’m going to state this: we simply, the two of us, we simply don’t want to feel as though we have a collar around each other’s neck and a leash attached to it, and then this piece of paper that proves that that’s true,” Depp said.

Heard filed for divorce from Depp on 23 May 2016 after 15 months of marriage.

Depp has sued Heard in Virginia for alleged defamation over an op-ed she wrote in 2018 for The Washington Post, in which she doesn’t name him but describes herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”. He has asked for $50m in damages.

Heard has countersued Depp, accusing him of allegedly orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her and describing his own lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment”. She has asked for $100m in damages.