Johnny Depp says he's 'not proud' of his text about Amber Heard's 'rotting corpse' and explains he often uses 'dark humor'

• Johnny Depp was asked to read aloud old text messages about Amber Heard in court.
• The messages included derogatory references to his ex-wife.

Johnny Depp said he's "not proud" of the language he used in past text messages in which he discussed his ex-wife Amber Heard in gruesome terms during cross-examination in court Thursday.

Depp was asked to read a series of his past text messages while answering questions from Heard's lawyers during his first day of cross-examination after three days of personal testimony.

The text that Depp was asked to read out, according to a report by People, was sent in 2016 to Depp's close friend and neighbor Isaac Baruch. In the message, Depp said he hoped his ex-wife's "rotting corpse is decomposing in the fucking trunk of a Honda Civic."

When asked to read the text allowed, Depp prefaced it by saying: "I'll just say that I'm not proud of any of the language that I used in these anger—."

Insider previously reported that in a separate message to Baruch that was discussed in court, Depp referred to Heard as "the slippery whore that I donated my jizz to for a while."

The actor also wrote about burning and drowning Heard in a text exchange with "Wandavision" actor Paul Bettany. "I will fuck her burnt corpse afterward to make sure she is dead," Depp wrote.

A source close to Depp previously told Insider that the text exchange was a "Monty Python" reference about witches, a show the two actors bonded over.

People magazine also reported that Depp previously testified that he often uses "dark humor" when speaking and is "embarrassed" by his past text messages.

Later during cross-examination on Thursday, Depp was also pressed about his history of drug and alcohol use as well as his relationship with Marilyn Manson — the musician accused of misconduct by more than a dozen women. Manson has denied the allegations.

When asked by one of Heard's lawyers whether they used drugs together, Depp answered that they had.

"We drank together, we've had cocaine together, maybe a couple of times," Depp said.

Depp was then asked whether he and Manson took "pills" together, to which he responded: "I once gave Marilyn Manson a pill so he would stop talking so much."

As Insider previously reported, Depp filed a defamation suit against Heard in response to an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post that detailed her experience with domestic violence. Depp's name wasn't mentioned, but the article was widely interpreted as being about him. The reality, according to Depp's lawsuit, was that Heard fabricated an incident where she accused Depp of beating her and had, in fact, verbally and physically assaulted him on numerous occasions.

Heard denied the claims and countersued, alleging Depp physically beat her numerous times in their relationship, often while intoxicated on drugs and alcohol.