Johnny Depp Says Giving Daughter Lily-Rose Marijuana At 13 Was ‘Responsible’ Parenting

Johnny Depp told the High Court he believes he was being a ‘responsible parent’ by giving his daughter marijuana when she was 13 years old. 

The actor commented on the controversial move while in court yesterday, July 7, for a libel trial against British newspaper The Sun, which he is suing over a 2018 article in which he was described as a ‘wife beater’.

Depp denied ‘encouraging’ his now 21-year-old daughter’s use of cannabis, claiming instead that he had been ‘involved in’ the decision and that he had discussed it with her mother and his ex-partner, Vanessa Paradis.

Recalling the situation, Depp explained he began to become concerned about his daughter, Lily-Rose, in her early teenage years, the Evening Standard reports.

He told the court:

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.

My daughter was at a party and someone passed the joint to her. She was just 12 and she said she didn’t know what to do.

Depp decided to speak openly with his daughter about the issue, advising her to pass the joint to someone else if she finds herself in that situation and not to experiment with drugs with people she didn’t know.

He feared the marijuana could be laced with unknown substances and told Lily-Rose:

Please, please, when you are really at the moment in your life when you are passed the joint and you really want to try it, please do me the honour of coming to me when you are ready, and you really feel you are ready.

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.

Depp said his decision to provide his daughter with marijuana was a ‘safety issue’, and when she came to him and told him she was ready to try weed he made an effort to ‘make sure the settings were perfection’ by turning on the TV and filling the freezer with ice cream.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star continued:

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.

I don’t want a 13-year-old going into some sort of paranoid tailspin. I knew the marijuana I had myself, that I smoked myself, is trustworthy and good quality.

While many may deem Depp’s actions shocking, he defended himself by addressing The Sun’s barrister Sasha Wass QC directly, 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.’

The trial between Depp and the newspaper is set to last three weeks.

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