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[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Johnny Depp is opening up about the abuse he endured in his childhood.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star sat down with The Telegraph over the weekend and dished jarring details about his mother Betty Sue Palmer. Speaking about the physical abuse he suffered at her hands, he opened up to the outlet:
“She beat me with a f**king stick, a f**king shoe, an ashtray, a phone. It didn’t matter, man.”
Damn… That’s brutal. Johnny is the youngest of four siblings. Betty Sue and Johnny’s father John Depp moved their brood around the states for a while before finally landing in Florida in 1970. Betty Sue worked as a waitress for years before eventually passing away in 2016 at 81 years old. So she saw her son become a huge star. And all that time, this was how he remembered her…
Related: Jaime King Is Engaged Again After Losing Custody Of Her Sons!
But Johnny doesn’t seem to hold too many hard feelings… In fact, he used his own turbulent upbringing as a guide for what NOT to do with his own kids, Lily-Rose, 26, and Jack, 23, whom he shares with ex Vanessa Paradis. He told the outlet:
“But I thank her for that. She taught me how not to raise kids. Just do the exact opposite of what she did.”
Johnny was happy raising his kids, and apparently did a good job… at first. He previously opened up about raising Lily-Rose and Jack in France. He told The Sunday Times last month:
“I was Papa. I cannot tell you how much I loved being Papa. Then, suddenly, Papa was out the window. I was Dad. But Papa was awesome.”
He added at the time:
“Truly, the first time I felt I had a home was the place in the south of France where Vanessa and I raised the kiddies. That’s the only place that ever felt like home.”
Well when he grew up in an abusive household, it’s no wonder he struggled to find that sense of home until he created his own family and broke the curse. We’re so glad he didn’t perpetuate that trauma from his own childhood… At least not on his kids.
Whether he was abusive to the women in his life has been one of the most controversial celeb topics over the last decade. Johnny has maintained ex-wife Amber Heard was abusive to him, not the other way around. And we did shockingly get evidence of that, as audio came out in which she admitted to hitting him.
In the context of how Johnny’s mother treated him as a child, it’s hard not to see parallels in his toxic marriage. Trauma continuing on through the generations. Really upsetting stuff.
Reactions, Perezcious readers?
If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
[Images via New Line Cinema/Amazon Prime Video & MEGA/WENN]
