Amber Heard and Whitney Henriquez (née Heard) grew up in Texas and their father, David Clinton Heard, had an ongoing issue with substance abuse. In London’s High Court in 2020, Amber testified that their father “struggled with alcohol and drug abuse issues his whole life,” according to Page Six. “He is an addict and an alcoholic and he was very violent but I love him very much.”
Their mother, Patricia Paige, lived through the challenges of a relationship with their dad, so Amber said that she often reached out to her mom for advice. In a text exchange from 2013, Amber wrote to her mother, “[Depp] makes dad look like a saint when he falls off the wagon.” Amber and Henriquez’s father didn’t just struggle with substance abuse, though. He was also allegedly abusive. “My father was violent to my mother growing up,” Amber said in court. “They loved each other but he was very violent to her until … she passed away.”
This wasn’t the only revelation aired about their dad recently. In April 2021, Radar Online exclusively reported that, in 1982, David was arrested and sent to jail for running illegal pit bull fighting rings on his property. He only spent 15 days in jail with charges of aggravated cruelty to an animal. Nevertheless, Henriquez still had fond feelings for her father. In 2013, she posted a photo to Instagram with her dad captioned, “Oh Poppa Heard.”
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
