Lily-Rose Depp, Johnny Depp’s daughter, explained in a recent interview with Elle why she chose not to speak out during the highly publicised defamation lawsuit between her father and his ex-wife Amber Heard earlier this year. The Idol star talked openly about her upbringing, being called a “nepo baby,” and other topics.
The defamation case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, in which the former couple battled in court over allegations of domestic violence made by the actress against Depp in her 2018 Washington Post op-ed, grabbed headlines earlier this year. Depp won the case because the jury found Heard guilty of slander, and the actor was given a US$10 million settlement. The actor had even written a moving Instagram post about getting his life back after his trial victory.
Lily-Rose recently shared a number of personal details in the cover story for Elle, one of which being her decision to keep her father’s legal situation quiet in public. She stated, “When it’s something that’s so private and so personal that all of a sudden becomes not so personal. I feel really entitled to my secret garden of thoughts.” She added, “I also think that I’m not here to answer for anybody, and I feel like for a lot of my career, people have really wanted to define me by the men in my life, whether that’s my family members or my boyfriends, whatever. And I’m really ready to be defined for the things that I put out there.”
Speaking candidly about her upbringing and the efforts made by Johnny and her mother Vanessa Paradis to protect her and her brother Jack’s privacy, she continued, “I know my childhood didn’t look like everybody’s childhood, and it’s a very particular thing to deal with, but it’s also the only thing that I know.” In the same interview, Lily-Rose attacked the phrase “nepo baby” in response to remarks about nepotism.