Why Amber Heard split from Johnny Depp

Amber Heard split from Johnny Depp after just 15 months of marriage because Depp's family "hated" her, new reports claim.

TMZ reports the couple's relationship became "extremely bitter" due to a feud between Depp's family and Heard.

Sources claim that Depp's two teenage children, two sisters and his mother "hated" Heard, 30, and were reportedly not shy in letting it be known.

Depp's late mother, Betty Sue (who died on May 20) also believed the actress "treated him like c**p" and was using her son for his money and to further her own career, it was reported.

They claimed relations deteriorated after Depp moved Betty Sue into the Los Angeles mansion he shared with Heard.

TMZ reports: "The tension was palpable. We're also told that, before Betty Sue moved in, she only saw her son once from the time he married Amber.

"And both Betty Sue and Johnny blame her for keeping them apart so she'd have full control."

Insiders claim Heard had two "closed door, sit-down" meetings with Betty Sue who allegedly branded the actress a "terrible person".

Depp had an especially close relationship with his mother, who was a frequent guest of the actor at various Hollywood functions over the years. In 2004, Palmer accompanied her son to the Academy Awards when he was nominated for best actor for his role in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Depp has often spoken about how his difficult upbringing forged a close relationship with his mum. "My mother was raised in a shack, in the wilds of Appalachia, where the toilet was an outhouse," he said in a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone. "She used to say she did the same things that her mother did - and her mother certainly didn't know any better. With my kids, they're told 75 times a day that they're loved. One thing I know is they feel loved and secure and happy and needed and necessary and a part of something."

Depp has the words "Betty Sue" tattooed inside a heart on his upper left arm, and in 1995 he spent nearly $1.4 million on a Kentucky farm for his mum, according to ET.

Heard filed for divorce from the star earlier this week, citing "irreconcilable differences". There is reportedly no pre-nuptial agreement between the couple, and Heard stands to score a chunk of Depp's reported $A555 million fortune which includes his private Caribbean island called Little Hall's Pond Cay.

Heard and Depp married in February of 2015 at a private civil ceremony at their home in Los Angeles.