AceShowbiz -

Another friend of Johnny Depp has come forward to defend the actor following Amber Heard's domestic abuse allegation. After Paul Bettany showed support for the Hollywood Vampires member on Twitter, comedian Doug Stanhope wrote an article for TheWrap in which he claimed that Heard threatened to spread lies about her husband of 15 years.

According to Stanhope, Depp himself told him about it when they, along with another friend named Bingo, spent a day in his and Heard's L.A. home earlier this month, days before news broke that the actress got attacked with an iPhone during an argument and before she filed for divorce.

"We assumed initially that his dour mood was because of his mother's death the day before," the comedian wrote. "But he opened up in the most vulnerable of ways that it was not only his mother, but that Amber was now going to leave him, threatening to lie about him publicly in any and every possible duplicitous way if he didn't agree to her terms. Blackmail is what I would imagine other people might put it, including the manner in which he is now being vilified."

Stanhope added that he and Depp's other close friends knew from the very beginning that Heard wasn't the right girl for him. "We have watched Amber Heard f**k with him at his weakest - or watched him at his weakest from being f**ked with - for the entire time we've known him," he continued and added that they never said anything to him "because he's Johnny Depp. And we didn't want to be thrown out of the circle for saying that The Emperor was being Stripped of His Clothes."

That day, Stanhope and the other friends finally told him what they really felt about Heard. He was prepared if Depp told him to leave for being honest, but he didn't. "Other people came in and out during the afternoon, all verifying that we'd been cowardly, saying things only behind his back for so long," he shared. "He seemed dumbstruck that nobody had ever come clean about this and he thanked everyone for being honest."

"Abusing women is bulls**t. Johnny doesn't abuse anyone. And he told me that day ahead of time that she'd pull some kind of s**t like this," he added. "Johnny Depp got used, manipulated, set up and made to look like an a**hole. And he saw it coming and didn't or couldn't do anything to stop it."

Heard obtained a temporary restraining order against Depp after submitting photos of bruises on her face that she said were sustained during an argument on May 21. The Los Angeles Police Department investigated her domestic abuse claim, but found no proof that a crime had occurred.

Amid her messy divorce, Heard looked pretty okay while making her first public appearance since requesting the temporary restraining order. Wearing minimal make-up and casual outfit, she's pictured smiling and laughing hard as she hugged a friend while leaving a legal meeting in Los Angeles over the weekend.