10 Things You Didn’t Know About Johnny Depp And Winona Ryder’s Relationship

Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder were a hot item back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. They began dating in 1989 when she was just a teen starlet and he was a rising TV idol. Together, they were perfect. With their dark hair, pale skin and brooding good looks, they were the talk of the world. Unfortunately, they broke up in 1993 and we’ve been missing their relationship ever since. Since they were such an iconic couple, we have 10 things you didn’t know about their relationship:

10. How They Met

Winona and Johnny first spotted each other at the 1989 premiere of Great Balls of Fire! They were in the lobby of New York City’s Ziegfeld Theatre and both of them have said it was love at first sight. She recalled that she was getting a coke, while Depp has said that it was “a classic glance, like the zoom lenses in West Side Story, and everything else gets foggy.”

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9. First Date

They met more formally a couple months later when a mutual friend, Josh Richman, introduced them. “I thought maybe he would be a real jerk,” she admitted, “but he was really, really shy.” For their first date, they went to Timothy Leary’s house and the 26-year-old actor was instantly smitten with the 17-year-old actress. “When I met Winona and we fell in love, it was absolutely like nothing before. We hung out the whole day…and night, and we’ve been hanging out ever since. I love her more than anything in the whole world.”

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8. Common Interests

They reportedly shared an instant connection because they both had a mutual obsession with The Mission soundtrack, Jack Kerouac and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher and the Rye. Depp was a big fan of the Beat poets and that was the kind of literature that Ryder grew up with. They both liked to collect first editions of the Beat poets’ work and together they would visit her father’s bookstore.

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7. Engagement

Before her relationship with Johnny, Winona had never had a boyfriend before, but that didn’t stop her from jumping in headfirst. After dating for only five months, they were engaged and then, a month after that, they moved in together. This wasn’t Johnny’s first engagement. From 1983 to 1985, he was married to makeup artist Lori Anne Allison and in the mid 80s he was engaged to Twin Peaks star Sherilyn Fenn. There are also claims that Depp was engaged to Dirty Dancing actress Jennifer Grey. None of this deterred the Beetlejuice star. “People assume it bothers me that he’s been engaged before but it really doesn’t. We have a connection on a deeper level. We have the same coloring, but we’re from very different backgrounds, so we’re interested in each other all the time,” she said.

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6. Her Family’s Stamp of Approval

Winona’s family were huge fans of Johnny’s. Her father didn’t have any reservations about the What’s Eating Gilbert Grape actor and totally approved of the match. When the two of them two of them would visit Winona’s family home in Petaluma to get out of New York City where they had a loft, her family would pamper them during their visits. “They really love him a lot and even bring me and Johnny breakfast in bed. They’re so cool,” she said.

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5. Her First

Before she met Depp, the only person Ryder had dated was Christian Slater. Their fling lasted a couple of weeks in the late ‘80s. So, when she met Depp, she was a virgin! “When I met Johnny, I was 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. So he’ll always be in my heart. Forever. Kind of funny that word,” she said.

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4. Wakeup Call

After her breakup with Depp, Ryder found herself quite depressed and slowly spinning out of control. “I was very depressed after breaking off my engagement with Johnny ten years ago. I was embarrassingly dramatic at the time, but you have to remember I was only 19 years old,” she said. “A doctor diagnosed me with anticipatory nostalgia – whatever that is – and gave me sleeping pills. I attempted being an alcoholic for two weeks; spending a lot of time in my hotel room; drinking screwdrivers from the mini-bar; smoking cigarettes and listening to Tom Waits. One night I fell asleep with a lit cigarette, and woke up to the flames. I haven’t visited that dark side since. That was what you might say my ‘wake-up call.’”

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3. His Heartbreak

Johnny quickly went to work on Ed Wood with Tim Burton after the breakup. According to Burton, the actor was pretty broken up about Winona, but insisted that the breakup was his fault and not hers. “The split in 1993 was during the filming of Ed Wood and there were days he would come crying, I felt so bad. I asked him why it happened but all he said was, ‘It wasn’t her fault, it was mine.’ And when he met Kate in January of ’94, it wasn’t the same as Winona. I felt weird to be around him like he wasn’t acting like Johnny anymore. It’s almost like Winona took Johnny’s soul, Johnny’s love.”

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2. Tattoo

During their relationship the 21 Jump Street star got “WINONA FOREVER” tattooed on his arm. He reportedly decided to get the tattoo to show that he was committed to the relationship; however, it made things a little awkward when they broke up. Rather than get rid of the tattoo, he opted to have it changed to “WINO FOREVER.” He explained his decision to change the tattoo. “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 said.

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1. Support For Johnny

When the Girl Interrupted star was recently asked about whether or not her Academy Award-nominated ex boyfriend had been abusive to her, she spoke in his defense. “I can only speak from my own experience, which was wildly different than what is being said,” she said. “He was never, never that way towards me. Never abusive at all towards me. I only know him as a really good, loving, caring guy who is very, very protective of the people that he loves.”