The French actor Gerard Depardieu has come under intense fire after a string of events that have lead him to have a Russian passport. His ex-wife and daughter have jumped to his defence, reports the Telegraph.

Late last year it was reported that Depardieu had bought a house just over the border in Belgium, to avoid high French tax for the very rich. The new socialist government has implemented a 75% tax on those who earn over one million Euros. While it seems steep, that still leaves an enormous EUR250,000 per million, which is more than enough to live a very good life on. Since being criticized for that he chose to take up Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer of a Russian passport - which has meant he's come under more criticism, understandably. However, his ex-wife and daughter have now come to his defence. 

His ex-wife described him as a man who is "inconsolable and who is fighting to try to go on living." Adding, "When someone is as lost as that, should one cast the first stone? He can go off the rails, he can say any old rubbish...sometimes there's the worst in him, but sometimes the best...I don't understand how one can sum someone up in one act".

"My father has been put in the dock like a major criminal, but my father is a man to whom one owes respect and not insults." Argued his daughter. 

Defending himself to a French sports channel L'Equipe21, he said that tax has nothing to do with it: "I have a Russian passport, but I remain French and I will probably have dual Belgian nationality...But if I'd wanted to escape the taxman, as the French press says, I would have done it a long time ago."