Johnny Depp on 'painful internal journey' following split with Amber Heard

Johnny Depp has just opened up about a "harsh and painful internal journey" following his bitter court battle with Amber Heard.

In an interview with Telegraph news, the Hollywood actor candidly discussed that he chose to let go of hate for his ex-wife.

"This sounds like horses*** but one can simply hold hate [until it] inspires some species of malice in your skull,” he said. "Makes you think of revenge. But hating someone is a great big responsibility to hang on to.”

For those unversed, the Aquaman actress wrote an article about being a victim of domestic violence in 2018 after her divorce from The Pirate of the Caribbean actor in 2016, which tarnished his reputation.

"The real truth of it, that I won’t allow, is that in order for me to hate, I have to care first. And I don’t care. What should I care about? That I got done wrong to [by others]? Plenty of people get done wrong," he continued.

He also revealed the reason for filing a defamation case against his ex-wife and admitted that it was because he didn’t want 'a lie' to do be the “deciding factor of whether or not I have the capability of making movies in Hollywood."

"Going through all that in real time amounted to seven or eight years. It was a harsh, painful internal journey. Would I rather not have gone through something like that? Absolutely. But I learnt far more than I ever dreamed I could,” the 62-year-old actor concluded.

It is pertinent to mention that the Virginia jury found both liable for defamation in 2022. Depp received a larger sum of damages, which is $10.35 million while Heard received only $2 million. Later, the ex-couple settled the case with Heard paying $1 million to Depp.