Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard: what has happened so far

Hollywood stars back in court after break in second libel case

Amber Heard
Amber Heard in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse
(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)

Iconic model Kate Moss, who was in a relationship with Johnny Depp for three years in the 1990s, is due to give evidence tomorrow at his libel trial against Amber Heard.

The Times said Moss is expected to “speak warmly” of her time with the actor and contradict Heard’s claim that he is a violent man. Moss will be the third of the actor’s ex-partners to testify, following Ellen Barkin and Heard herself. Here is a look back at his other romantic relationships.

Lori Anne Allison

Depp was married to make-up artist Lori Anne Allison from 1983 to 1985. Rolling Stone said the couple met through her brother, who played with Depp in a band called the Kids.

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Allison introduced Depp to Nicolas Cage, who landed him an audition for A Nightmare on Elm Street, his first on-screen role. In 2016, she told TMZ that Depp is a “soft person” who never hit or yelled at her.

Sherilyn Fenn

Following his divorce from Allison, Depp met the actress Sherilyn Fenn on the set of the 1985 film Dummies. They dated for two and a half years and co-starred in the US TV series 21 Jump Street.

In 2017, Fenn told the Big Issue magazine that Depp was “very sweet” and “was my first love”.

Jennifer Grey

Depp met Dirty Dancing star Grey through her agent and they started dating in 1989. In her memoir, she wrote that Depp proposed to her within two weeks of meeting her and they got a pekinese-poodle puppy as a “practice baby”.

But she called off their engagement shortly before her 29th birthday, when they had been together for just nine months. Grey said that she was engaged to the “ridiculously beautiful” Depp – as well as Matthew Broderick – within the same month, noted The Independent. In her memoir Out of the Corner, Grey said Depp became “crazy jealous and paranoid”.

Winona Ryder

“I knew then” said Depp of the first time he set eyes on Ryder, at the premiere of her film Great Balls of Fire in June 1989. They began dating two months later, when she was 17 and Depp was 26.

They became a Hollywood power couple and co-starred in the movie Edward Scissorhands. Depp got “Winona Forever” tattooed on his bicep. After they broke up in 1993, he had the tattoo amended to read “Wino Forever”.

Depp and Ryder at a party in 1990

Depp and Ryder at a party in 1990
(Image credit: Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch)

During Depp’s libel trial with The Sun in 2020, Ryder’s statement to the court described how he was never “abusive” or “violent” towards her and was an “extremely caring guy”, noted The Times. She added that she was “shocked, confused and upset” when she learned of Heard’s allegations against him.

Ellen Barkin

Barkin testified against Depp at the London trial, claiming he once threw a bottle in her direction. However, the Daily Mail noted that Depp insisted that his former flame had a “grudge” against him.

Their relationship began in 1994 and Page Six said that, after that relationship “fizzled out”, Depp and Barkin embarked on a “non-exclusive relationship” in 1998 while filming Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

In testimony during the Heard case, Barkin said: “He’s just a jealous man, controlling – ‘Where are you going? Who are you going with? What did you do last night?’”

Kate Moss

Depp dated the supermodel between 1994 and 1997 after they met through Vanity Fair writer George Wayne.

Moss spoke warmly of Depp during an interview with Vogue. “There’s nobody that’s ever really been able to take care of me,” she said. “Johnny did for a bit. I believed what he said. Like if I said: ‘What do I do?’ – he’d tell me. And that’s what I missed when I left. I really lost that gauge of somebody I could trust,” she said.

However, in 1994, Depp was arrested for causing almost $10,000 worth of damage to a hotel room, with Moss found “sitting amid the wreckage” by police, noted the New York Post.

Vanessa Paradis

Depp and Paradis first met in 1998, when Depp saw the French singer sitting with a group of friends at a bar in Paris, where he was having dinner with colleagues.

Depp and Paradis at the Golden Globes in 2006

Depp and Paradis at the Golden Globes in 2006
(Image credit: PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

They were together for 14 years and had two children together: a daughter, Lily-Rose, in 1999 and a son, Jack, in 2002. Depp told French magazine VSD that living in France with Paradis and their kids “has given me everything, a marvellous family and also an equilibrium”. Paradis told Marie Claire of Depp: “I could make an endless list of all the things I admire about him.”

After they separated, Depp told Rolling Stone that the break-up “wasn’t easy” but “it doesn’t stop the fact that you care for that person, and they’re the mother of your kids, and you’ll always know each other, and you’re always gonna be in each other’s lives because of those kids”.

Amber Heard

Depp met Heard in 2009 during the filming of The Rum Diary. They began dating in 2011 and were married in a civil ceremony in February 2015. Heard soon filed for divorce, which was finalised in 2016. Depp has denied ever physically assaulting Heard, and has repeatedly accused her of being violent herself.

He has sued his former partner for $50m (£40m) over an article she wrote in 2018 in which she claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse. In court, she “described a controlling and violent Mr Depp, prone to jealous rages and drug binges”, said the BBC. Heard is counter-suing Depp for $100m.

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