Johnny Depp bails on Fantastic Beasts movie promo to ‘avoid’ ex-wife Amber Heard

Johnny Depp failed to attend a Fantastic Beasts event to reportedly avoid sharing a stage with ex-wife Amber Heard.

The 54-year-old star reportedly ducked out of the annual CinemaCon event in Las Vegas on Wednesday to save himself the awkward encounter.

All the cast members of upcoming Warner Bros’ films took to the stage for a “Class of 2018” photo, including Depp’s Fantastic Beasts co-stars and Amber Heard who is promoting the film Aquaman.

Despite playing the title character in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts sequel, The Crimes of Grindelwald, Depp is thought to have skipped the event to “avoid an awkward meeting with Amber.”

“Johnny knew Amber was going to be there and didn’t want to run into her – never mind share a stage with her,” the source said. “It would have been way too awkward – there’s still a lot of bitterness about the whole situation, it’s still raw,” a source told The Sun.

Only married for 15 months, the couple’s divorce was finalised in January 2017 with Heard donating all the proceeds from the settlement to the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles.

Claiming that a bruise on her cheek was the result of domestic abuse, Heard was granted a temporary restraining order against Depp in 2016.

In a statement posted on Instagram, the couple said: “Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. There was never an intent of physical or emotional harm.”

Following the high-profile separation and domestic violence claims, Fantastic Beasts producers came under fire for sticking with Depp as their lead for the sequel.

Fantastic Beasts author JK Rolling openly defended the casting choices, saying “the filmmakers and I are not only comfortable sticking with our original casting, but genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movies.”

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will be released on 16^th November 2018.