Johnny Depp’s former business managers have accused the actor of “getting physical” with his ex-wife Amber Heard and alleged the actor attempted a cover-up in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

Legal documents filed in May claim Joel Mandel of The Management Group (TMG) was told Depp, 54, had violently kicked Heard, 31, in or around 2014.

“[Mr Mandel] was informed well after the fact through communications with various house staff and security that Depp had been extremely volatile and had sometimes ‘gotten physical’ with Heard,” TMG alleged, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE magazine.

Court documents show TMG allege Depp pressured a longtime assistant to publicly accuse Heard of manufacturing damming text messages.

Heard filed for a domestic violence restraining order against Depp in May 2016, a week into their messy divorce case, based on allegations he had been abusive several times during their 15-month marriage. She alleged she feared for her life in one incident in December 2015.

Depp repeatedly denied allegations he was abusive and described the accusations as “salacious false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies”.

Entertainment Tonight published screen-shots of text messages, purportedly between Heard and Depp’s assistant, discussing the alleged abuse.

The sender apologised to Heard, who responded: “He’s done this many times before.”

Depp publicly denied the authenticity of the text messages, but TMG’s court documents allege he knew they were genuine.

“TMG is informed and believes that Depp knew full well that the text messages were genuine, but pressured and berated his assistant to falsely challenge the texts publicly,” the court document state, according to PEOPLE.

“Depp and his longtime assistant publicly denied the messages and outrageously accused Heard of manufacturing them.”

The court documents also alleged the actor was aware he was illegally smuggling dogs into Australia last year and “pressured one of his long-term employees to ‘take the fall'” when confronted by authorities.

Depp sparked an ongoing lawsuit earlier this year when he accused his former business managers of fraud. He alleged their “gross misconduct” led him to lose millions of dollars.

TMG filed a cross-complaint, accusing the actor of spending more than $US2 million ($A2.64 million) a month to maintain an “ultra-extravagant lifestyle” that he “simply cannot afford”.

His managers of 17 years claimed Depp had a “compulsive spending disorder”, which included dropping $US300,000 ($A396,000) a month on wine.

The suit pointed to an April interview the actor did with The Wall Street Journal as evidence of his “clear and epic” senseless spending.

Depp questioned in the interview why the company didn’t drop him as a client if he was “so out of control”.

“It’s my money. If I want to buy 15,000 cotton balls a day, it’s my thing.”

Depp and Heard settled their divorce in January this year, in which Depp retained his properties and more than 40 vehicles and vessels, but was made to pay $US7 million ($A9.23 million) to Heard, which she said she would donate to charity.