Johnny Depp recently admitted to giving his daughter, Lily-Rose Depp, marijuana when she was 13 years old. Depp shared the story while on the stand for his libel case against a UK tabloid that he accused of defaming him by claiming that he beat his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Depp contends that it was Heard who was abusive.
During his time on the stand, Depp’s past substance abuse was brought up, as well as the claim that he gave Lily-Rose, now 21, marijuana. He confirmed this to be true, after explaining the circumstances of the situation. “My daughter was 13 years old, and as we all know at 11, 12, and 13 years old, when you go to a high school party, you are approached by people who will want to give you drink because they are drinking at 12 and 13, doing cocaine at 12 and 13 and smoking marijuana at 12 and 13, doing ecstasy and doing many, many drugs,” he said, as reported by The Blast. “She was just 12, and she said she didn’t know what to do.”
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Depp then went on to state that he warned his daughter of the dangers of doing drugs with people you don’t know. “I said, ‘Listen, sweetheart, if you are at a party and someone hands you the joint, take the joint from the person, and pass it to the next person. Please don’t experiment with drugs with people you don’t know,’” he said. “It’s a safety issue, it’s a father worried about his daughter in this kind of situation. I know the most important thing for a child if you are going to do something like that, I would rather have them be honest with me and me be honest with them, so she doesn’t go out there and do things and hide them from me.”
Depp went on to say, “I want her to trust me. If my daughter says she was ready, she was ready. I wanted to make sure the settings were perfection, put on family TV, fill the refrigerator with ice cream, fill the freezer, make a situation where the experience is as pleasant as possible.” He then stated that he told Lily-Rose that he would feel more comfortable with her coming to him when she was ready to try marijuana. “I don’t want your first experience to be with people you don’t know, taking things you don’t know, that you don’t trust,” he told her.
“I don’t want a 13-year-old going into some sort of paranoid tailspin,” Depp continued. “I knew the marijuana I had myself, that I smoked myself, is trustworthy and good quality.” Finally, he addresses those who may take issue with his parenting, saying, “If this is wrong in your eyes, I appreciate what you think. But I was raising a daughter, and I was being a responsible parent so far as I’m concerned.”
