Winona Ryder Talks About Her ‘Fiercely Deep Love’ With Johnny Depp
Winona Ryder has opened up about her passionate romance with Johnny Depp. The two were engaged from 1989-1993, and according to Ryder, he was her first real boyfriend.
While she had some small flings before him, the Stranger Things star admits that Depp was the first man to truly steal her heart. And according to Ryder, they shared a “fiercely deep love” that she considers one of the most significant relationships of her life.
Winona Ryder says her first serious relationship was with Johnny Depp
Ryder was only a teenager when she agreed to marry the Corpse Bride actor. And although she was relatively young to get married, she felt as though Depp was her one true love at the time.
“When I met Johnny, I was a pure virgin,” she said, according to InStyle. “He changed that. He was my first everything. My first real kiss. 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 word “Forever” is pretty significant for their relationship, because Depp got the words “Winona Forever” tattooed to his bicep quickly after they started dating. And while some found his behavior to be impulsive, Depp insisted that he put a lot of thought into the tattoo.
“I’m being really honest with you when I say that there’s been nothing ever throughout my twenty-seven years that’s comparable to the feeling I have with Winona,” he told Rolling Stone Magazine in 1991. “Believe me, this ‘Winona forever’ tattoo is not something I took lightly…. Her eyes kill me.”
Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp shared a ‘fiercely deep love’
“I had my first real relationship with Johnny (Depp),” she told cinema.com. “A fiercely deep love that I don’t know that I’ll ever… The first love is like that, isn’t it? I don’t know today. It was a real wild time back then.”
And according to Ryder, her breakup with Depp left her heartbroken and depressed. Fortunately, now, she can look back at their relationship with fondness instead of feeling heartbroken.
“It’s really good to be able to think about past loves without having a pit in my stomach, or cringing or feeling heartbroken, or like they hate you. Don’t you think?” she told the website. “Because for the first few years after you break up, you go through all of those feelings. I was very depressed after breaking off my engagement with Johnny… I was embarrassingly dramatic at the time, but you have to remember I was only 19 years old.”
“A doctor diagnosed me with anticipatory nostalgia – whatever that is – and gave me sleeping pills,” said Ryder. “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’.”
Will Winona and Johnny star in any more movies together?
Ryder and Depp both have an incredibly close relationship with director Tim Burton. They even starred together in his 1990 gothic-romance movie, Edward Scissorhands. Because Depp and Ryder have such a close relationship with Burton, fans wonder whether they will be reunited for Beetlejuice 2, set to come out in 2021. The film initially stars Ryder as Lydia Deetz, yet Burton is looking for a new actor to play the titular character.
Many speculate that Depp will be cast in the film, which means the ex-fiancés can be reunited at last.
