Former celebrity couple Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have been engaged in a legal battle over public comments about their relationship. Although this is not a criminal case, intimate partner violence is a key character in this trial.
“None of us have ever actually been proactively taught about the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships,” Katie Hood, chief executive officer of One Love Foundation, told NPR’s All Things Considered on April 24. “And what One Love is trying to do is create awesome learning materials.”
Hood’s organization provides education to young people on healthy and unhealthy relationships. Domestic violence impacts everyone, not just women.
Depp gained a wealth of supporters on his behalf, but experts have said that there is more to the story. In an interview with All Things Considered on May 2, Kellie Lynch, domestic violence researcher at the University of Texas at San Antonio, shared her insights.
“Violence we think of as intentional harm toward the other,” Lynch said. “That may or may not be abusive. There might be bi-directional violence or they’re both violent towards one another. That doesn’t mean the same thing as mutual abuse.”
There also may be biases clouding how Depp and Heard are both being seen in this case.
“Any time you have men versus women, you might see double standards. You might see biases. You’re going to see definitely, differences in how behavior is interpreted,” Lynch said.
*Sourced from the NPR story “The Depp-Heard case places a spotlight on relationships and intimate partner violence” by Amina Kilpatrick – https://www.npr. org/2022/05/05/1097002768/the-depp-heard-case-places-a-spotlight-on-relationshipsand-intimate-partner-vio
