I just spoke with my 20-year-old daughter – 4 of 5 and a better goaltender than I’ll ever be — when I read about Lily-Rose Depp, the 16-year-old actress and model daughter of Hollywood star Johnny Depp who publicly declared herself in August to be ‘sexually fluid’, meaning she does not regard herself as 100 per cent heterosexual, it caused a sensation.

‘She’s got thousands of followers on social media, and they were all taken completely by surprise,’ says her father. ‘But not me. I already knew because she tells me everything – she’s not afraid to say anything to me. We’re super-tight and I’m very proud of our relationship. …

‘She’s got a sensible head on her shoulders, and I trust her to lead a sensible, responsible life, but I can’t ever see the day coming when I just switch off to let her make her own way in the world.’

Depp, 52, is possibly a little extra-protective of Lily-Rose because when she was seven, he and Vanessa nearly lost her to an E. coli infection, which she contracted while her father was filming Sweeney Todd in London. Her life was saved by what Depp has described as the ‘terrific’ medical team at Great Ormond Street Hospital. But as he remembers today, there was a period when they were not sure whether the little girl would make it at all.

‘They told us her kidneys had shut down and that she would be lucky to survive. For nine days we sat by her bed, and refused to move until she began to pull through.

‘Filming had to stop. Everything had to stop. It was three weeks before she was allowed to go home. I still think of that time when I’m playing an emotional scene in a movie – it’s something that, when you’ve been through it, you can’t help but tap into.’

But can she play goal?