iO Tillet Wright opened up about longtime friends Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's divorce. The photographer and gay rights activist lived with the couple for a year before their 2015 marriage. Today, he remains best friends with Heard — but has decided to cut ties with Depp, he told London's Sunday Times magazine.
Wright explained he disagrees with Depp's unapologetic stance on his behavior, reports People. But doesn't hold a grudge against the actor. "It's a tough thing... People are very rarely bad people," he wrote. "People have things that happen to them, and people have pain they are trying to get around." Wright continued, "Everyone is trying to dance with their pain, and sometimes it's — who do you stab in the process? It's what you do about having stabbed them that's the delineation between people you can have in your life and people you can't." Wright's understanding attitude concerning Depp's violent behavior is likely due to the deep relationship he held with the actor and Heard. "They saved my life, 100%," said Wright of the former couple's emotional support.
The 31-year-old first became publicly embroiled in the couple's split back in June, when Heard named him in the restraining order request she filed back in May. Wright wrote an essay for Refinery29 about why he decided to call 911 after a domestic abuse incident earlier this year. In the piece, he called Depp, "a person I loved very much." He wrote, "When you call someone your brother, you also commit to calling them out when they are wrong."