Winona Ryder reflects on struggle to look after herself following Johnny Depp split in 90s

Winona Ryder has reflected on the aftermath of her relationship with Johnny Depp, revealing her struggle to take care of herself after their 1993 split.

Stranger Things star Ryder was in a relationship with Depp between 1989 and 1993 and was engaged to the star for three years. Following their split, Depp’s ‘Winona forever’ tattoo was edited to read ‘Wino forever’.

Having defended the Pirates Of The Caribbean star amid his 2020 libel trial in the UK, she’s now branded the period in the 90s after their breakup as her Girl, Interrupted ‘real life’, referring to the 1999 film she executive produced and starred in about a young woman in a psychiatric hospital, alongside Angelina Jolie.

During a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she hinted that her breakup with Depp, meshed with the harsh Hollywood culture, made her life take a dark turn.

Ryder – who went on to credit ‘an incredible therapist’ for encouraging the actress to be gentler to a younger version of herself in order to heal – recalled playing a character who ends up getting tortured in a Chilean prison in 1994 film The House of the Spirits, explaining: ‘I would look at these fake bruises and cuts on my face [from the film], and I would struggle to see myself as this little girl. “Would you be treating this girl like you’re treating yourself?”

‘I remember looking at myself and saying, “This is what I’m doing to myself inside.” Because I just wasn’t taking care of myself.’

The actress said her The Age of Innocence co-star Michelle Pfeiffer was a great support as she dealt with the spotlight, saying: ‘I remember Michelle being like, “This is going to pass.” But I couldn’t hear it.

‘I’ve never talked about it. There’s this part of me that’s very private. I have such, like, a place in my heart for those days. But for someone younger who grew up with social media, it’s hard to describe.’

Ryder previously spoke up about her relationship with Depp in 2020, after the actor sued The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) over an April 2018 column from The Sun’s then-executive editor Dan Wootton, which referred to the actor as a ‘wife beater’ following allegations of domestic abuse from former spouse Amber Heard.

Depp ultimately lost the case, in which Justice Nicol found that 12 of the 14 alleged incidents of domestic violence did occur. He went on to win a separate defamation trial against Heard in the United States last month.

In a witness statement submitted before the 2020 trial, Ryder said that she only knows Depp as an ‘incredibly loving, extremely caring guy’.

Her statement read: ‘I knew Johnny very well years ago. We were together as a couple for four years, and I counted him as my best friend, and as close to me as family.

‘I count our relationship as one of the more significant relationships of my life.’

The Edward Scissorhands actress added: ‘I truly and honestly only know him as a really good man – an incredibly loving, extremely caring guy who was so very protective of me and the people that he loves, and I felt so very, very safe with him.

‘I do not want to call anyone a liar but from my experience of Johnny, it is impossible to believe that such horrific allegations are true. I find it extremely upsetting, knowing him as I do.’

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