Johnny Depp opens up about difficult and heartbreaking split from 'love of his life'

In Hollywood, Johnny Depp is widely recognized as one of the most successful actors. The 59-year-old Golden Globe Award winner has an enviable career that has spanned decades, with him starring in many big movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, among others.

Much as he is admired for his acting flair, however, Johnny Depp is equally famous for his personal life. Over the years, Depp has been involved in several high-profile relationships with fellow actresses in Hollywood. Unfortunately, all of them proved ill-fated - as we have observed in the recent legal fight between Depp and Amber Heard.

But before Depp's life took a downward spiral because of Amber Heard, he was in a very romantic relationship with Vanessa Paradis.

A look back at their romance

Despite having a successful career in her own right as a singer, model, and actress from France, many people may only be familiar with Vanessa Paradis as Johnny Depp's ex-girlfriend.

On the film set of the 1999 movie The Ninth Gate, Depp and Paradis became friends. He remembered:

'It was the Hôtel Costes. She was wearing a dress with an exposed back and I saw that back and that neck, and then she turned around and I saw those eyes, and - boom! My life as a single man was done.'

Meanwhile, Vanessa Paradis remembered how quickly they clicked together. She said:

‘We were in two different worlds. Him in America, me in France - but we had friends in common. We saw each other some time for four years. But then, the day we found each other in Paris, we were both in the same world and free and it was instant. There was no more time to waste - just no way around it.'

Do the couple share any child?

Their first child, a girl named Lily-Rose Melody Depp, was born on May 27, 1999, less than a year after Paradis and Depp began dating. Even later, Depp admitted that he sang Lily-birth Rose's song, The Nearness of You, by Keith Richards. He disclosed:

'I played this one from a boombox when Lily-Rose was born. This is her birth song. She arrived at this, man.'

They welcomed their son John Christopher ‘Jack’ Depp III a few years later, on April 9, 2002.

Depp said that he was genuinely happy with the family, with whom he spent years.

According to the Express, the actor previously discussed with Oprah how Paradis and his kids changed his life.

‘[They] changed it completely. I mean Vanessa and my kids gave me life. Just I mean put me in another, a whole other arena.'

‘Sounds like you found the love of your life’, Oprah enquired. ‘Yeah’, Depp responded confidently.

Most heartbreaking split

Depp and Paradis were much in love, but they ultimately opted against getting married. He emphasized that their marriage was as strong as it could be. ‘I never found myself needing that piece of paper’, he said.

‘Marriage is really from soul to soul, heart to heart. You don't need somebody to say: 'Okay, you're married.'

Unfortunately, Depp and Paradis separated just a few years later, in 2012. After 14 years of dating the actress, whom he had previously referred to as the ‘love of his life’, the Pirates of the Caribbean actor called it quits.

At the time, Depp's spokesperson stated that the pair had ‘amicably separated’ and asked for privacy.

‘They've tried for months to save the relationship, but have known for weeks that it couldn't be saved ... it was all decided before she got on that plane’, a source said at the time to People.

After the split, Depp spoke in generalities about the breakdown of his relationship with Paradis while she steadfastly refused to discuss it.

Depp later said that the split doesn't stop him from caring for the mother of his kids:

'At times, certainly unpleasant, but that's the nature of breakups, I guess, especially when there are kiddies involved. It doesn't stop the fact that you care for that person, and they're the mother of your kids. You'll always know each other and always be in each other's lives because of those kids. You might as well make the best of it.’

Subsequent nightmare with Amber Heard

Depp dated Amber Heard following his breakup with Paradis. They were wed in a flash and divorced around 15 months later. Later, she alleged him of physically abusing her.

In the protracted legal disputes between Depp and Heard, Paradis passionately supported her ex-partner.

Depp was described as a ‘sensitive, loving and loved person’ by Paradis. She said:

‘In all these years I have known Johnny he has never been physically abusive with me and this looks nothing like the man I lived with for 14 wonderful years.'

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