Johnny Depp: 'I love living the simple life'

The Alice in Wonderland star - who shares children Lily Rose, 10, and Jack, 7, with partner Vanessa Paradis - admitted that he prefers his simple life in France to the pace and attention of Hollywood.

He told The Mirror: "We have a great place in the South of France. It's a little hamlet - only about 45 acres - and I don't do anything. I've not left the property for three months at a time. I literally just wake up, go out, check the garden and see the vegetables growing.

"It's a pristine existence in terms of simplicity. There's no talk of movies or work and, infinitely more important, the telephone never rings. It really is a beautiful, simple life."

The 46-year-old went on to confess that his decision to purchase a Caribbean island in 2004 was made in the spur of the moment.

He continued: "Like everything else in my life it wasn't planned, it just kind of happened. I went on vacation to escape with my kiddies and my girl and someone said that there was an island down the road for sale.

"I said, 'Let's go see it'. I looked at it, I walked on it and I was done. It had to be. It came at the perfect moment for me. The island provides me with simplicity and somewhere I can go where no-one is looking at me or pointing a camera or a finger at me. I can just be. When we're there we do absolutely nothing."

/Digital Spy/