Supermodel Kate Moss and actor Johnny Depp were the defining It-couple of the Nineties.
The beautiful pair - all chiselled jaw lines and rock ‘n’ roll insouciance - dated for four years between 1994-1998 and “were the chicest, druggiest couple since Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg,” says Maureen Callahan in her 2014 book Champagne Supernova, adding, they were also “the epitome of cool in a Trainspotting culture.”
Incessantly photographed on the most glamorous red carpets, the two were immersed in New York’s grunge culture and Los Angeles’ club scene. They’d jet around the globe – Moss didn’t have a permanent home at the time, and Depp, now 58, who had just invested in the debaucherous Viper Room in LA (the location of Moss’ outrageous 21st birthday party which saw Neighbours star Jason Donavan carried out on a stretcher), spent long stretches of time at Hollywood hot spots the Hollywood Roosevelt and Chateau Marmont. The latter of which it’s rumoured they shagged in every one of its 63 bedrooms.
Since their split in 1998 the two have remained amicable. Moss, 48, had never spoken out about Amber Heard’s claims of domestic abuse in her 2018 Washington Post op-ed - the focus of Depp’s current $50 million defamation trial against his estranged wife - but that all changed earlier today as the fiercely-secretive, interview-adverse supermodel testified via videolink in defence of her ex-boyfriend.
Speculation that the model might be called to stand began after Depp’s team were seen enthusiastically celebrating Heard name-dropping Moss on May 5.
“I don’t hesitate and wait – I instantly think of Kate Moss and stairs,” she claimed when testifying about an alleged altercation between her and then-husband Depp. “He pushed Kate Moss down the stairs, I heard this from two people, and this was fresh in my mind,” Heard told the jury at the time.
By mentioning the alleged incident during the court case, Heard inadvertently allowed Depp’s lawyers to call Moss as a witness to discuss the rumour, to which the supermodel testified: “‘He never pushed me, kicked me or threw me down any stairs”.
In light of Depp and Moss’ virtual reunion, we delve into the details of their Nineties romance.
The meet-cute in East Village’s coolest haunt
A year after the breakdown of Depp’s intense relationship with Winona Ryder – who he was engaged to and even had a tattoo of her name that read “Winona Forever” – Depp reportedly met Moss at the popular New York City café Tabac in 1994.
The Calvin Klein model was 20 at the time and the Edward Scissorhands actor 31. Vanity Fair writer George Wayne later revealed that he was the one who set the two up. Wayne wrote on Instagram in 2019: “Johnny was in the back having dinner and Kate walked in with Naomi [Campbell] and [I] grabbed her and made the introduction! I had no idea that they would then become the IT couple for seasons to come, destroying hotel rooms across the globe during their still unforgettable union.”
According to Moss, she felt an instant connection to the movie star. “I knew from the first moment we talked that we were going to be together,” she once said, according to People.
However, Depp’s friend and longtime collaborator Tim Burton wasn’t so convinced. “It’s not the same as with Winona. I felt weird being around him, like he wasn’t Johnny anymore. It’s almost as if Winona has taken his soul, his love," the director said of Depp’s relationship with Kate Moss.
Inside their messy four-year relationship
Burton’s reservations were soon squashed. In 1994, a friend of the actor told PEOPLE: “They can’t keep their hands, lips, mouths, legs off of each other.”
Depp, a self-professed “romantic,” apparently takes his relationships very seriously. He believes, he says, in “happily ever after,” which probably explains the five marriage proposals throughout his lifetime. According to PEOPLE, Depp has said, “Am I a romantic? I’ve seen Wuthering Heights 10 times. I’m a romantic.”
His relationship with Moss therefore yielded gob-smacking tales of young love, like the time Depp presented Moss with a diamond necklace, "which he had hidden down the crack of his ass," she revealed on a British morning show.
But, their passion for one another would also spill over into heated arguments. The couple were spotted shouting at each other in public, according to reports, and one reported spat resulted in Depp’s arrest. At 5:30 a.m. on September 13, 1994, the actor was arrested for criminal mischief at New York’s Mark Hotel for allegedly trashing his hotel room.
Police found Depp “in a state of possible intoxication” and Moss uninjured. A criminal-court judge dismissed the charge against Depp on the condition that he stay out of trouble for six months. Depp paid the Mark Hotel $9,767.12 including more than $2,000 for damages, plus the bill for the remainder of his reservation. “I think Johnny obviously has a temper,” his friend, director John Waters told PEOPLE at the time of the incident. “But this is a very minor incident. The room service must have been bad.”
All publicity is good publicity and there was no beef between Depp and the hotel, with the actor later saying that: “The owner approached my publicist about two years after the incident and thanked her, saying: ‘It was so great for us that Johnny got arrested at our hotel. You can’t imagine the business we got out of it!’”
The tearful break-up and temporary reconciliation
The two first called time on their era-defining relationship in 1997, with Depp telling Hello magazine that he struggled to balance his busy work schedule with their romance. “I have never got that emotional over a woman before,” 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.”
Moss echoed Depp’s statement, saying: “He was away a lot of the time and I’d go shopping, that ladies-who-lunch crap. It was so boring. The most lonely, shallow place. I was going insane. I’m not normally a depressed person, but I got really sad... and we grew apart.”
However, author Callahan cited Moss’ party antics and “clinginess” as the reason for their split. “She’d phone him all the time, on sets, in hotels,” a friend allegedly told the author. “She never expressed concern about his drug use. She expressed concern about being separated from him on jobs.”
Rumours started to circulate that the pair had reconciled in January 1998, when an outlet reported that Depp had ordered 36 bottles of champagne to his hotel room in West London so that Moss could take a bath in the bubbly. She denied the claims, explaining that she was not even staying at the hotel at the time. ”It was not her. It was not Kate, it’s not her style. She doesn’t use the hotel anymore,” a rep said.
They did briefly get back together and were spotted hanging out at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, where Moss faced her own hotel problems after she allegedly got in trouble for wearing a bikini in the hallways of the highly acclaimed Hotel du Cap. She reportedly trashed her hotel room during the stay, and was banned from ever setting foot there again.
Their temporary reconciliation was brief and the couple split for the final time later that year.
Moss revealed in a 2012 Vanity Fair interview that the break-up hit her hard. “There’s nobody that’s ever really been able to take care of me. Johnny did for a bit,” she said in the 2012 interview. “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!”
The aftermath
Shortly after his split from Moss, the actor told Hello! magazine: “I have to get out there now and find the right candidate to be the mother of my children. I am coming up to 35, and you get broody.” It didn’t take long for the actor to make good on his dreams. Depp soon entered into a long-term relationship with French singer Vanessa Paradis, whom he dated for 14 years. Within months of the two dating, Paradis became pregnant and they welcomed a daughter, named Lily-Rose, in 1999, and a son, named Jack, in 2002.
Depp separated from Paradis in 2012, and two years later, became engaged to Heard after the two met on the set of The Rum Diary.
In pain after the split, Moss threw herself into partying, often with actor Jude Law and his wife, Sadie Frost. Not long afterwards, in 1998, Moss spent five weeks in rehab in London’s Priory clinic for “exhaustion.”
Moss went on to date Spacehog guitarist Anthony Langdon. While he bought her an engagement ring three months into their relationship, they split in 1999 after only one year together. She also famously dated Libertines band member Pete Doherty, Dazed & Confused magazine editor Jefferson Hack (with whom she shares a daughter, Lila Grace Moss-Hack, 19) and the Kills guitarist Jamie Hince, who she married in 2012 and divorced in 2017.
She is now dating British-German photographer and aristocrat Nikolai von Bismarck who is credited with her new low-key, party-free lifestyle. Moss, who was once nicknames The Tank for legendary capacity for knocking back booze, now swears by yoga and eight hours sleep. “I hit the sack at 11 p.m.-ish and watch Netflix before I go to sleep,” she said a few years ago.
