Amber Heard described Johnny Depp as a "monster" during the former couple's defamation trial.
Many of his ex-girlfriends disagree.
Now that the verdict is in, here's a look back on what Johnny Depp's exes said about
his behavior.
Back in 1983 in his home state of Florida, a 20-year-old Johnny Depp married Lori Anne
Allison, a makeup artist a few years his senior and whose brother played alongside the future
actor in a band called The Kids.
According to Allison's now-defunct website, she was the David Bowie-worshiping, esoteric,
and non-conformist type of artist we can totally see a young Johnny Depp being drawn to.
Although they were only hitched for about two years, calling it quits in 1985, the pair
have seemingly remained on good terms to this day.
Following Amber Heard's domestic abuse allegations against Depp amid their 2016 divorce, sources
cited by TMZ claimed that Depp's first wife described him as a kind, caring, and, quote,
"soft person."
The outlet paraphrased Allison as reportedly saying that he was more loving toward the
couple's pet dog than most parents are to their kids.
She also denied that Depp was ever physically or verbally abusive throughout their marriage.
Further showcasing that she still seems to hold a soft spot for her ex-husband, Allison
has decided to keep his last name after all these years, going by Lori A. Depp.
Former "Twin Peaks" star Sherilyn Fenn dated Johnny Depp from 1985 to 1989.
The pair reportedly first met while working on a student film called "Dummies" together,
and they were soon inseparable.
Fenn, who was 19 at the time that their relationship began, has since described Depp, who was 21,
as her first love.
Reflecting on their relationship to The Big Issue in 2017, Fenn said that she and her
former flame shared a strong bond and spent their days "cooking meals, hanging out, laughing
and crying."
She added,
"It is more about that than the fact he is this well-known person now.
I know him as a human, not a movie star."
The actor, who even guest-starred on Depp's series "21 Jump Street," has since gone on
to defend her ex multiple times on Twitter.
In 2016, she opened about Depp's alleged behavior during their relationship, captioning a throwback
pic of the former couple with,
"I know JCD is not capable of the things being written."
"Are you going to go to jail?"
"Well, some of that could depend on you."
Fast forward to Depp's 2022 defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, when Fenn continued
to share tweets in support of her ex-boyfriend, including the hashtag "#istandwithjohnny."
In another post, Fenn replied to a fan praising her ongoing support for Depp with,
"We were each other's first love.
I will always love and support him."
Jennifer Grey's short-lived engagement with Johnny Depp reportedly started as a rebound
of sorts following her split from her "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" co-star, Matthew Broderick.
The duo had been set up on a blind date, and as Grey revealed to Extra in May 2022, she
was promptly charmed by the young star's positive qualities.
"Funny and sweet and just so charming and quirky and weird and self-effacing."
She also shared that Depp was romantic, and obsessed with her.
But the relationship wasn't built to last.
Grey claimed in her memoir, "Out of the Corner," that their whirlwind romance was often a long-distance
one, owing to Depp's busy work schedule.
She described it as a "bonfire" of a relationship, with his behavior occasionally taking tense
turns.
She wrote,
"[He] started missing his flights home to L.A., having overslept, or when he did come
home, he'd be crazy jealous and paranoid about what I'd been up to while he was gone.
[...] He became moodier and less and less present.
I kept wondering how or if I was ever going to get that easygoing, funny, devoted, adoring
guy back."
Grey said that she attributed his unhappiness to being stuck working on "21 Jump Street"
when he was eager to make the leap to making movies.
She ultimately called off their engagement after less than a year together.
Noting that she "knew him in a very different time," Grey told Extra that she hadn't kept
in contact with Depp following the breakup.
Amid the allegations surrounding his relationship with Amber Heard, she said,
"I don't have an opinion, except it breaks my heart."
Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder were pretty much everyone's favorite indie Gen-X couple.
Not only did these two get engaged mere weeks after locking eyes for the first time, but
they also starred as lovers opposite each other in Tim Burton's 1990 flick "Edward Scissorhands."
According to a 1991 interview with Rolling Stone, the pair met at the movie premiere
for "Great Balls of Fire!" in 1989, with Depp describing the moment he first laid eyes on
the then-17-year-old Ryder as
"...a classic glance, like the zoom lenses in 'West Side Story,' and everything else
gets foggy."
Depp, who's about eight years her senior, would later pop the question and also get
his infamous "Winona Forever" tattoo on his bicep — temporarily marking Ryder as his
one and only love.
Despite the impulsive nature of their romance, the "Stranger Things" star has remained adamant
to this day that her relationship with Depp was the real deal.
Ryder once told Cinema.com,
"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."
The "Beetlejuice" star defended her ex-fiancé in a deposition during Depp's 2020 libel lawsuit
against The Sun, which had labeled him a "wife beater" following Amber Heard's domestic abuse
allegations.
During those proceedings, she said,
"I cannot wrap my head around these accusations.
He was never, never violent towards me.
He was never, never abusive at all towards me.
He has never been violent or abusive towards anybody I have seen.
[...] I felt so very, very safe with him."
Johnny Depp and Juliette Lewis played love interests in the 1993 indie drama "What's
Eating Gilbert Grape?"
— in which their characters bond over esoteric interests and their open-minded outlooks on
life.
The actors' onscreen spark seemed to ignite behind the scenes, as well, and although it
hasn't been confirmed, Depp and Lewis reportedly dated briefly while filming the movie.
Lewis' alleged short-lived romance with Depp occurred following her breakup with her boyfriend
of three years, Brad Pitt, People reports.
According to her own experience with Depp, he was apparently a very giving person who,
despite his growing fame at the time, liked to stay humble.
In a 1993 interview with Los Angeles Times, she said of her co-star,
"Johnny is self-debasing.
Is that the right word?
Anyway, sometimes he's too self-debasing."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Oh, I don't know, there's not so much to do here really."
The two publicly 2016 reunion at the Art of Elysium Heaven Gala, Depp and Lewis have appeared
to remain on good terms.
When Johnny Depp met supermodel Kate Moss in a New York City cafe in 1994, it seemed
as though their fate was written in the stars.
According to People, Moss said at the time,
"I knew from the first moment we talked that we were going to be together."
A source told the magazine that the two were inseparable.
When she and Depp ended their relationship four years later, Moss said she was heartbroken.
Moss, who's 11 years Depp's junior, told Vanity Fair in 2012,
"There's nobody that's ever really been able to take care of me.
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.
Nightmare.
Years and years of crying.
Oh, the tears!"
For his part, Depp wasn't exactly content with their split, either.
In a 1998 interview with Hello!
magazine, he expressed regret for how his admitted behavior, stemming from stress over
his high-profile career, soured their romance.
He said,
"I have been so stupid because we had so much going for our relationship.
I'm the one who has to take responsibility for what happened — I was difficult to get
on with, I let my work get in the way and I didn't give her the attention I should have
done."
In May 2022, when Moss herself gave a witness testimony in defense of her ex during Depp's
defamation case against Amber Heard.
In the "Aquaman" star's prior testimony about a March 2015 argument between Depp and her
sister, Whitney Henriquez, which she said took place near a staircase, Heard claimed
that she feared for her sibling's safety.
She went on to allege that Depp had once purposely pushed Moss down a flight of stairs while
the couple was vacationing in Jamaica.
However, Moss testified that this never happened, saying in court that Depp actually came to
her aid when a rainstorm caused her to slip.
She recounted to the jury,
"As I left the room, I slid down the stairs and I hurt my back.
... I screamed, because I didn't know what happened to me and I was in pain.
He came running back to help me and carried me to my room and got me medical attention."
"... He never pushed me, kicked me, or threw me down any stairs."
Johnny Depp met Ellen Barkin while filming "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," a 1998 movie
based on the Hunter S. Thompson novel of the same name — and while their subsequent short-lived
affair flew under the radar, the pair's former relationship made headlines decades later
amid Depp's 2020 libel lawsuit against The Sun.
During her deposition about their time together for Depp's ultimately unsuccessful libel trial,
Barkin made claims of verbal abuse, but not physical.
Of her ex's allegedly violent tendencies, she claimed that Depp had once thrown a wine
bottle in her direction.
For his part, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star denied this accusation, claiming in his
own testimony that he and Barkin had been friends before entering an on-again, off-again,
friends-with-benefits type of relationship.
However, Depp reportedly told her he wasn't interested in more of a committed relationship
and claimed in court that Barkin has since held a "grudge" against him.
He alleged,
"She wanted a proper relationship with me and I did not want that.
I didn't feel the same about her as she did me, and I suppose from that moment on she
became very, very angry.
And since then I have not spoken to Ms. Barkin; neither has Ms. Barkin spoken to me."
When Johnny Depp and model-singer-actor Vanessa Paradis met at a party in Paris back in 1998,
it was love at first sight for the "Ed Wood" star.
Dishing on the special moment to the Daily Mail in 2011, he said,
"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."
After only one year of dating, the two welcomed their daughter, Lily-Rose, into the world,
and three years later had their son, Jack.
However, Depp and Paradis, who remained together for 14 years, never felt the need to get married.
And when they ultimately ended things in 2012, the former couple remained on good terms for
the sake of their kids.
It's perhaps not too surprising, then, that Paradis came to her ex's defense following
Amber Heard's domestic abuse claims.
During Depp's 2020 libel trial against The Sun, Paradis claimed in her witness statement
that Heard's allegations were "outrageous."
She claimed,
"I have known Johnny for more than 25 years.
We've been partners for 14 years and we raised our two children together.
Through all these years I've known Johnny to be a kind, attentive, generous, and non-violent
person and father.
[...] From my personal experience of many years, I can say he was never violent or abusive
to me."
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp met in 2009 while working on "The Rum Diary."
At the time, they were both in relationships with other people, but Depp admitted during
their 2022 defamation trial to developing feelings for Heard during the production of
the movie.
"Wait a minute, what's your name?"
"Let's keep that a secret."
Once they were both single, they got together and announced their engagement in 2014.
They got hitched the following year, but the duo's whirlwind and tumultuous relationship
came to an end following 15 months of marriage in 2016, leading to acrimonious divorce proceedings
and a number of domestic abuse allegations — and denials — from both parties.
A therapist for the former couple testified in court that the two had engaged in "mutual
abuse" during their relationship.
Depp maintained during the trial that he had never abused Amber Heard – and the jury
unanimously believed him.
During the trial, Heard accused her ex-husband of physical and verbal abuse, sexual assault,
and excessive drug and alcohol use, referring to his allegedly darker side as a “monster.”
On June 1, 2022, the jury found Heard and Depp both liable for defamation against each
other, awarding Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damage
for the statements made in a 2018 op-ed.
Heard received $2 million in compensatory damages over one statement a former attorney
of Depp's, Adam Waldman, had made during a previous trial.
Despite both being awarded some money, Heard was unanimously found by the jury to have
defamed Depp with malicious intent with her 2018 op-ed, which alleged she had become a
public figure representing domestic abuse.
After the verdict, Heard released a statement which read in part,
“The disappointment I feel today is beyond words.
I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate
power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband […] I’m sad I lost this case.
But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American
- to speak freely and openly.”
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National
Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.