Paul Bettany is speaking out to clarify the nature of his friendship with Johnny Depp.
The VisionQuest star revisited the controversial text messages in which he joked about burning Pirates of the Caribbean actor Depp’s former partner, Amber Heard. The exchange became public during Depp’s high-profile legal battles.
The messages, sent between 2013 and 2014, first emerged during Depp’s unsuccessful 2020 libel lawsuit against The Sun. The actor had sued the British tabloid after it described him as a “wife beater” in connection with Heard’s allegations of domestic violence.
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The texts resurfaced two years later during Depp’s 2022 defamation trial against Heard. She was ultimately found responsible for defaming her former husband in an op-ed published by The Washington Post.
Reflecting on Depp’s legal saga as an “interesting time,” Bettany told The Times in an interview published Oct. 15: “I hadn’t spoken to Johnny in years when that happened and I haven’t spoken to him since.”
“I was being painted as this close friend of a guy I hadn’t spoken to in years,” he added. “And, honestly, amid all the s–t two celebrities threw at each other, that bit was the most odd.”
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