Amid Johnny Depp and Amber Heard‘s defamation trial, celebrities have been keeping an eye on the court proceedings — and they have not been afraid to share their opinions.
Drew Barrymore made headlines after joking about the legal drama during her talk show. “It’s, like, one layer of crazy, it’s a seven-layer dip of insanity. I know that these are two people’s real lives and I know what it’s like to have your life put out in public,” the 50 First Dates star, 47, said about the live-streamed trial in April. “I understand all the feelings, but they are actually offering up this information.”
After receiving criticism on social, the California native apologized to her followers for trying to add humor to the conversation.
“It has come to my attention that I have offended people with making light of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and for that, I just want to deeply apologize and appreciate everyone who spoke out because this can be a teachable moment for me and how I move forward and how I conduct myself,” Barrymore detailed in an Instagram video in May. “I can be a more thoughtful and better person moving forward because all I want to do is be a good person and I very much appreciate the depth of this and I will grow and change from it, and I thank everyone for helping me grow along the way and teaching me.”
Depp, 58, and Heard’s court trial is a result of the Oscar nominee suing his ex-wife, 36, for defamation. The Kentucky native claims that Heard’s 2018 op-ed about her past history with abuse cost him his career in Hollywood.
The former couple’s relationship first became a topic of conversation one year after they tied the knot in 2014. The activist filed for divorce after 15 months of marriage and obtained a temporary restraining order against Depp after accusing him of domestic violence. The Pirates of the Caribbean star, for his part, has denied the claims.
After their 2016 divorce, Depp filed a libel lawsuit against the U.K. newspaper The Sun for referring to him as a “wife beater” in a 2018 article. Two years later, the High Court of Justice ruled that The Sun‘s article was not libelous because Heard’s allegations were “substantially true.”
The actor has since addressed how Heard’s essay for The Washington Post affected his future. “It’s been six years of trying times,” Depp said during his witness testimony in April. “It’s pretty strange when one day you’re Cinderella, so to speak, then 0.6 seconds you’re Quasimodo. I didn’t deserve that, nor did my children, nor did the people who have believed in me for all these years. I didn’t want any of those people to believe that I had done them wrong or lied to them or that I was a fraud. I pride myself on honesty.”
The Aquaman star, who has yet to take the stand, reflected on her ups and downs with Depp ahead of the legal trial. “I never named him, rather I wrote about the price women pay for speaking against men in power,” she wrote via Instagram that same month. “I continue to pay that price, but hopefully, when this case concludes, I can move on and so can Johnny. I have always maintained a love for Johnny and it brings me great pain to have to live out the details of our past life together in from of the world.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
Scroll down to see what other celebs have said about the ongoing trial: