Amber Heard's relationship with Johnny Depp is all people can talk about these days, but
Heard's journey is about way more than all that.
So how did she go from a tomboy beauty queen to a movie star?
And what happened with her and Elon Musk?
Keep watching to find out.
"Cool."
In her youth, Amber Heard spent her time taking part in local beauty pageants.
As she told Glamour, her family made her responsible for raising the funds that she needed, so
she'd often ask businesses in her area to sponsor her ahead of the competitions.
But the former beauty queen has mixed feelings nowadays, telling the magazine,
"Pageants are weird, and I can't support the objectification."
As an actor, she relived her competition days — well, kind of — by playing Miss San
Antonio in the action film "Machete Kills."
The pageant queen also had a few tomboy hobbies, which her dad encouraged.
She told Glamour,
"I was his hunting and fishing buddy.
When I was 12, I was struggling to stay on a bucking horse that was particularly unhappy
about the arrangement.
I spotted a little patch of grass, and I leapt.
It didn't just take the look on my dad's face to put me back in the saddle.
But that helped."
As her dad later told the Daily Mail, Amber Heard always had her heart set on becoming
an actor.
He told the tabloid,
"She wanted this for her career since she was 12-years-old, from the time she was a
little girl."
Heard dropped out of her private Catholic school at age 16 to pursue fame in New York.
Although her family eventually convinced her to return to Texas, she left again once she
was 18, despite her dad "begging" her not to.
She later earned her diploma by going through a home-study program.
Heard got her start by sending her pictures to New York agencies and doing modeling gigs,
as she told the Independent.
The young teenager had absolutely no interest in being a model, but loved how different
New York was from her home in conservative Texas.
She told the outlet,
"I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
From that moment on I was different."
Her move may have also been motivated by a tragic loss: Her best friend was killed in
a car accident when Heard was only 16, as she told USA Today.
"That was the hardest blow emotionally that I have ever had to endure.
Suddenly, you realize tomorrow might not come.
Now I live by the motto, 'Today is what I have.'"
During her early years in show business, Amber Heard appeared in brief roles for TV shows
like "The O.C." and "Jack and Bobby," as well as the odd music video.
She told Glamour,
"I would audition for everything, from Hot Girl Number 3 at Party to Daughter Leaving
for College.
I would go around, a lot of times by city bus.
I'd sit toward the back and change underneath my jacket."
Heard didn't have her first starring movie role until the slasher, "All The Boys Love
Mandy Lane."
She has spoken out about the difficulties she faced during her early career, blaming
the scarcity of complex female characters on Hollywood sexism.
In 2016, she told the Independent,
"In case you haven't noticed, go see a movie right now and tell me what the majority of
compelling speaking roles are.
[...] Filmmakers are 90 percent male, so we don't have a more balanced perspective from
our storytellers.
We're way behind in this possibly progressive medium."
When Amber Heard started dating photographer Tasya Van Ree, she was warned that being openly
bisexual would sabotage her career.
"It did impact my career, it was difficult."
Heard discussed how her relationship had affected her image at The Economist‘s Pride & Prejudice
Summit in New York City in 2017, saying,
"I started to understand why so many people — studio execs, directors, advisers, agents,
producers — why everyone was so adamant about this not being the label that comes
before my name."
The pair were together for five years, but their relationship wasn't completely smooth
sailing.
In 2009, one fight in an airport led to Heard being taken into custody over an alleged incident
of domestic violence.
Van Ree later spoke out in Heard's defense, as E! News reported, clarifying that the charges
were dismissed and blaming the situation on, in her words, the "misogynistic attitudes
toward us which later appeared to be homophobic when they found out we were domestic partners."
Van Ree went on to praise Heard, saying:
"Amber is a brilliant, honest and beautiful woman and I have the utmost respect for her.
We shared 5 wonderful years together and remain close to this day."
In 2011, Amber Heard met Johnny Depp for the first time when she was cast as his romantic
interest in "The Rum Diary."
The pair had a connection from the start, despite their vast age difference — Heard
turned 23 during filming, and Depp was 48.
She later recalled during the 2022 defamation trial against her,
"We liked a lot of the same stuff, obscure writers ... pieces of poetry I hadn't heard
anyone else reference.
I thought it was remarkable."
"He's an incredibly talented actor and he's wonderful to be around."
Heard also revealed that Depp had told her she was, in his words, "the dream" and had
flirted with her on set by jokingly pushing her down onto a sofa bed and using tongue
in their kissing scenes.
Heard added,
"I felt chemistry, I felt this other thing that went beyond my job, for sure.
Johnny clearly felt that way about me.
But at the same time we were both in relationships and it is a job."
They started dating soon after the film came out in 2012 and were married three years later.
As People magazine reported at the time, the couple had a civil ceremony in their Los Angeles
home before participating in a larger wedding on Depp's private island in the Bahamas.
One of the biggest roles of Amber Heard's career came in 2017 when she joined the DC
Extended Universe as Mera.
Heard was reluctant at first, as she told Entertainment Weekly:
"I felt really, why did they ask me to do that?
It seemed really archetypal and kind of limited.
I didn't really like the idea of the idea."
The actor was won over, however, after reading some Aquaman comics that featured her character
standing up for herself.
Zach Snyder also promised that his version of Mera would be, quote, "a warrior queen,
with a crown and a sword."
Heard told The Hollywood Reporter,
"A strong, independent, self-possessed superhero in her own right.
I was like, 'That's the kind of character I can get behind.'"
"Sometimes you have to do what's right, even if your heart aches against it."
After her debut in "Justice League" opposite Jason Momoa, "Aquaman" was a massive hit at
the box office, swiftly becoming the DC Universe's biggest success and ending up the fifth most
popular film of 2018.
She dated Elon Musk
Shortly after splitting from Johnny Depp, Amber Heard started seeing tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Musk had first tried to meet her on the set of "Machete Kills" in 2013, according to The
Hollywood Reporter, and the pair became friends.
Rumors started swirling around the pair in 2016 after Heard left Depp and was spotted
in public with the Tesla CEO, although their romance wasn't confirmed until Heard's marriage
was officially over.
However, Musk and Heard weren't together for long.
Musk told Rolling Stone he was heartbroken after the split, explaining,
"Well, she broke up with me more than I broke up with her, I think."
Heard told The Hollywood Reporter that they bonded over "intellectual curiosity" and "a
shared love for science."
Despite reuniting for a couple of months, the pair ultimately went their separate ways,
with Heard telling the outlet,
"Elon and I had a beautiful relationship, and we have a beautiful friendship now, one
that was based on our core values."
After her divorce in 2016, Amber Heard embraced activism and became vocal about issues like
domestic violence.
As the Washington Post reported, the actor gave a speech on Capitol Hill, talking about
how her private photos had been leaked without her consent in 2014 and how the law should
deal with revenge porn.
She also visited Syria with the United Nations' Stand Up 4 Human Rights campaign and raised
awareness for voters' rights.
"If you believe in human rights, you are a human rights activist."
Heard has spoken about how her childhood visits to the border between Mexico and the United
States inspired her interest in activism.
She reflected in a speech at the United Nations,
"Simply due to where I was born, a few miles north of this line, I was free to travel back
and forth as I saw fit."
While her father could drive through easily to see their friends in Mexico, the actor
recalled, she would witness others struggle, quote, "for a mere shot and an opportunity
to have that which I was just awarded due to this accidental luck of my birth on the
other side."
As a high school student, she also donated to the ACLU when they fought for a same-sex
couple to attend their prom, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
She told the outlet,
"Hollywood is the slowest to change.
It's ironically held up as some bastion of progressive ideals, and yet the reality is
the exact opposite.
It's deeply risk-averse and reliant on maintaining the status quo."
Amber Heard became a mother on April 8, 2021, when Oonagh Paige was born via surrogate.
Introducing her child to the public, Heard revealed on Instagram,
"Four years ago, I decided I wanted to have a child.
I wanted to do it on my own terms.
I now appreciate how radical it is for us as women to think about one of the most fundamental
parts of our destinies in this way."
Heard also admitted that, while she wanted to keep her new baby private, she knew that
this development wouldn't stay secret for long, thanks to her fame.
In 2022, Amber celebrated Oonagh's first birthday, telling her Instagram followers that it had
been "the greatest year."
She gave her daughter the name Paige as a tribute to her mother, who died in May 2020.
Amber Heard has become a topic of international discussion over her marriage to Johnny Depp,
which ended in Heard being granted a restraining order against her ex-husband following allegations
that he was physically abusive toward her.
In their divorce, Depp ended up paying Heard a settlement of $7 million, which she pledged
to charity.
In 2020, Depp lost his libel case against British tabloid The Sun, as the BBC reported,
after they called him a "wife beater."
A judge found that their reporting was "substantially true" and ruled that 12 of the 14 alleged
incidents of domestic violence against Heard had been proven in court.
The judge said the violent incidents "must have been terrifying" for her, saying in court,
"Taking all the evidence together, I accept that she was the victim of sustained and multiple
assaults by Mr. Depp in Australia."
Depp is now suing Heard for $50 million over an article about domestic abuse that she wrote
for the Washington Post, although the op-ed never mentioned him or their marriage by name.
This led Heard to file a motion to dismiss the case, in which she claimed she was shoved,
choked, and hit by the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star during various alleged incidents.
For his part, Depp claims that during their marriage, Heard "punched and kicked" him and
"repeatedly" threw objects at him, including a vodka bottle that severed his finger.
"I was hitting you.
It was not 'punching' you.
Babe, you're not 'punched.'"
"Don't tell me what it feels like to be punched."
The highly publicized Virginia trial will be followed by Heard's countersuit, as the
pair have both accused each other of conducting smear campaigns and sabotaging professional
opportunities.
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.