Johnny Depp should be dropped as the face of Dior’s Sauvage fragrance campaign, should the allegations of domestic violence against him be proved, a leading women’s charity has said.
Last week, a Los Angeles judge granted a restraining order against Depp from his estranged wife, Amber Heard, who accused the 52-year-old actor of attacking her in their penthouse apartment. Photographs submitted to the court showed Heard with a large bruise on her face, and items scattered on the floor including broken bottles, picture frames and shattered glass.
“If the allegations of domestic abuse are proven to be true, we would hope that a responsible fashion house would not continue to work with a perpetrator — no matter how high-profile they may be,” a spokesperson for Women’s Aid said.
“We need to send out a strong message that domestic abuse will not be condoned or tolerated.”
Advance, another women’s charity, said: “Domestic violence affects women of all backgrounds as it affects one in four women in their lifetime. This means it could be your mother, sister, friend or even a celebrity. Society needs to stop accepting it and tolerating it.”
Some people attacked the campaign, which sees photos of the actor plastered across department stores and billboards, as insensitive under the circumstances: Heard recently filed for divorce from Depp and is seeking spousal support from the star, to whom she was married for just over a year. Documents filed by lawyers representing Heard claimed Depp “began obsessing over something that wasn’t true” and “became extremely angry”, eventually throwing a mobile phone at Heard, striking her cheek and eye “with extreme force”.
They also alleged two other incidents of domestic violence by Depp in the past six months, including one in April on Heard’s birthday, in which Depp allegedly threw a magnum-sized bottle of champagne at the wall and a wine glass at her before grabbing her by the hair and shoving her to the floor. In her statement, Heard said: “During the entirety of our relationship, Johnny has been verbally and physically abusive to me. I endured excessive emotional, verbal and physical abuse from Johnny, which has included angry, hostile, humiliating and threatening assaults to me whenever I questioned his authority or disagreed with him.”
According to representatives for Depp he denies the claims he was violent towards Heard.
The Sauvage campaign, which launched a year ago, includes a video of Depp driving a vintage Dodge Charger through the desert. The ad has run on television and online.
Dior declined to comment.
