When Johnny Depp fell in love with Winona Ryder before dating Amber Heard: I love her more than I love myself
Throwback to the time Johnny Depp fell in love with his Edward Scissorhands Winona Ryder co-star before dating Amber Heard.
Way before Johnny Depp laid his eyes on Amber Heard, who he married in 2015 and then divorced in 2016, the actor was head over heels in love with his Edward Scissorhands co-star Winona Ryder. The film came out in 1990. It was truly love at first sight for Depp. The actor saw Ryder for the first time at the 1989 premiere of Great Balls of Fire! in New York and was instantly attracted to her. However, during the event they did not get to hang out together. Reportedly, months after the premiere, a mutual friend introduced them to each other and set them on a date.
The two started seeing each other and fell in love. Back then, she was 17 and he was 26. In an interview with People, Depp openly gushed about the actress and professed his undying love for her. He said he could not imagine his life without Ryder. “There’s been nothing in my 27 years that’s comparable to the feeling I have with Winona… I love her so much. I don’t know what I would do without her. I love that girl. I love her almost more than I love myself,” he said.
Ryder too declared her love for the Pirates of the Caribbean star during an interview in which she revealed that Depp was her first everything. “When I met Johnny, I was a pure virgin. He changed that. He was my first everything. My first real kiss. My first real boyfriend. My first fiancé. The first guy I had sex with,” she said. Ryder was engaged to actor Depp for three years beginning in July 1990. However, their relationship did not last and the actors took their fans by surprise when they announced their split in 1993.
Following their breakup, Depp went back to work. Back then he was working on The Nightmare Before Christmas with director Tim Burton. The filmmaker had later mentioned that Depp turned up to work in floods of tears. While talking about their split, Depp told Burton that the breakup was his fault and not Ryder’s. The actress was just as devastated by their breakup. According to a report by Mirror, Ryder struggles with depression after the split.
When Depp and Ryder were together, the actor had gotten her name tattooed as a token of his love for her. After they decided to call it quits, Depp tweaked his ink and instead of getting rid of it, he replaced “Winona Ryder” with “Wino Forever.” Explaining his decision to keep the tattoo, Depp once said, “To have the tattoo removed or erase it is to try and say it never happened. If I alter it in some way, make it funny – put her next boyfriend’s name on top of it, say – it would still be honest,” he explained.
The two eventually moved on in their lives and Johnny ended up marrying Heard. They two reached a divorce settlement in 2016. The 56-year-old actor filed a USD 50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard in 2019 after the actress accused him of domestic abuse in 2018. They are currently in the middle of a very ugly legal battle. Earlier this year, Ryder defended her former lover called Amber Heard's claims of domestic violence 'impossible to believe' in a legal declaration.
'I do not want to call anyone a liar but from my experience of Johnny, it is impossible to believe that such horrific allegations are true. I find it extremely upsetting knowing him as I do' the Stranger Things star said during her legal declaration that was obtained by The Blast. “I knew Johnny very well years ago. We were together as a couple for four years, and I counted him as my best friend, and as close to me as family. I count our relationship as one of the more significant relationships of my life. I understand that it is very important that I speak from my own experience,' she stated.
Ryder asserted that she found Heard’s accusations shocking because she could never imagine Johnny as a person who would use violence against women. “I obviously was not there during his marriage to Amber, but, from my experience, which was so wildly different, I was absolutely shocked, confused and upset when I heard the accusations against him. The idea that he is an incredibly violent person is the farthest thing from the Johnny I knew and loved. I cannot wrap my head around these accusations.”
