Johnny Depp told Rolling Stone that he bought a Lexington, Kentucky farm for his mother, Betty Sue, with one of his first big acting paychecks. He claimed that — soon after he bought the property — another one of his sisters, her husband, and their son moved in, and he employed them to manage the farm. Depp alleged that when one of the TMG managers informed him that the Kentucky leg of his family was spending exorbitantly, it had already been going on for years. He requested documentation of their spending, which ended up being “over 200 pages” of material. “[My sister] was buying handbags for my mom, who was bedridden,” Depp said. “Jewelry, f***ing this, that, everything.”
When Betty Sue was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, Depp rented her a $30,000-per-month Los Angeles home. When she reportedly recovered, Depp said he told TMG to cancel the lease so she could move back to Kentucky, but Depp claimed they forgot to cancel it. TMG denied the claim, saying they renegotiated the lease as instructed.
Depp’s other family members still live on the farm. He explained, “Their thinking is that I’m going to take care of them forever and that the farm is now theirs. I didn’t make that promise.” As for why Depp never kicked them out of the property, he told Rolling Stone incredulously, “That’s why I’m paying [TMG].”