Johnny Depp says texts he sent to actor Paul Bettany about burning and drowning his former partner Amber Heard were a joke based on a Monty Python sketch.

The actor told a US court on Monday that he was “ashamed” of the messages but that they were an attempt at “irreverent and abstract humour”.

It comes as Mr Depp continues to give evidence in the defamation trial, taking place in Fairfax County, Virginia, which is now in its third week.

The actor is suing Ms Heard for libel over a 2018 article she wrote in The Washington Post, which his lawyers say falsely implies he physically and sexually abused her.

The court previously heard that during a 2013 text exchange with Mr Bettany, Mr Depp had written: “Let’s burn Amber.

“Let’s drown her before we burn her. I will f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.”

But Mr Depp said he and Mr Bettany had connected over their “abstract sense of humour” to deal with difficult situations, and the comments were never “intended to be real.”

“As these are private texts there was a lot … in context,” he said.

“It’s important to know none of that was ever intended to be real and the language used which … yes, I am ashamed (of) has to be spread on the world like peanut butter.

“For example, the text that is about burning Ms Heard is directly from Monty Python and the sketch about burning witches and then drowning the witches.

“This is a film we’d all watch when we were 10 – it’s just irreverent and abstract humour.”

Mr Depp added that the relationship between Mr Bettany and Ms Heard was “abominable” as she viewed him as a “threat”.

“Ms Heard despised Mr Bettany mainly because we had become such close friends and for her he was a threat and would take me away from her.”

Mr Depp has denied all allegations that he has ever assaulted Ms Heard.

He told the court that after reading the Washington Post article for the first time he felt like he had been “hit over the head with a two-by-four (piece of wood)”.

The trial continues.