Johnny Depp Discusses Divorce, Extravagant Spending In ‘Rolling Stone’ Interview

Johnny Depp’s fortune sank over time for a rash of reasons, including a messy divorce and multiple lawsuits. He sat down with down with Rolling Stone Thursday to give a candid account of his personal life and to set the record straight about rumors of financial woes and extravagant spending.

His Thoughts On His Messy Divorce

Amber Heard and Johnny Depp met on the set of the film The Rum Diary. The couple fell in love and exchanged vows in February 2015, but later divorced in 2017. During their relationship, they were often used as tabloid fodder, and when the couple divorced, Depp very publicly paid her $7 million as a divorce settlement. Heard later donated the money to the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and the American Civil Liberties Union.

There were rumors during the divorce that Depp physically abused Heard. He denied the abuse claims, and police officers who responded to a fight between the two said that they found no evidence that a crime took place. Later, 32-year-old Heard petitioned for a restraining order but eventually stopped pursuing it, according to Fox News.

The 55-year-old actor told Rolling Stone that his failed marriage to Amber Heard hit the Edward Scissorhands star hard, and he hit rock bottom during the experience.

“I was as low as I believe I could have gotten. The next step was, you’re going to arrive somewhere with your eyes open and you’re going to leave with your eyes closed. I couldn’t take the pain every day.”

Where Did All The Money Go?

Johnny Depp is estimated to have made $650 million; however, and most of it is gone, Rolling Stone pointed out to him in the interview. He has always maintained that a big portion of his empty bank accounts are due to The Management Group (TMG), who he sued the same year of his divorce.

Depp’s lawsuit states that TMG lost a big portion of his money through negligence, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty. The mismanagement of his acting wages has cost him millions, according to the suit.

TMG is managed by Joel Mandel and his brother Robert, and the business management firm was responsible for the day-to-day management of Johnny Depp’s account. The lawsuit is asking for more than $25 million from his former managers, which “TMG illegally took for its commission.”

The lawsuit cites that, “Under TMG’s watch Depp’s sister Christi was given $7 million and his assistant, Nathan Holmes, $750,000, without his knowledge, and that he has paid the IRS more than $5.6 million in late fees.”

TMG denied all wrongdoing in the matter, then countersued, insisting Johnny Depp has a $2-million-a-month compulsory-spending disorder. They said that the actor spent $30,000 a month “just for wine,” and on a sound engineer that allegedly was hired to feed him lines so he wouldn’t have to memorize them while making movies.

Johnny Depp told Rolling Stone that he didn’t deny having the “sound engineer on his payroll,” but that he employed him so that the engineer could play him certain sounds. Doing so allowed Depp to “convey emotions with this eyes” during a film shoot.

“I’ve got bagpipes, a baby crying and bombs going off. It creates a truth. Some of my biggest heroes were in silent film… It had to be behind the eyes. And my feeling is, that if there’s no truth behind the eyes, doesn’t matter what the f—— words are.”

Depp also said that the TMG countersuit lowballed some of his extravagances. He said that he did splurge on wine and that the claim’s reported figures fell short. He hilariously told Rolling Stone(and we can imagine this delivered Jack Sparrow-style) that, “It’s insulting to say I spent $30,000 on wine,” scoffing,”Because it was far more.”

The countersuit also alleged that the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas star also paid $3 million to have the ashes of the late journalist, Hunter S. Thompson, launched from a cannon in Aspen, Colorado. Depp, who played Thompson in Fear and Loathing told Rolling Stone that number was also low saying, “By the way, it was not $3 million to shoot Hunter into the f—— sky. It was $5 million.”

Johnny Depp also revealed in the Rolling Stone interview that he was worried about how his financial woes would affect his kids, Jack and Lily-Rose. An emotional Depp told them that Jack had to hear about how his father “lost all his money from kids at school, that’s not right.”