Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s relationship seemed doomed from the start, but insiders believed there was “genuine love” before it all exploded.
The actor, 62, and actress, 39, are being examined in a new book written by Kelly Loudenberg and Makiko Wholey, “Hollywood Vampires: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, and the Celebrity Exploitation Machine.” It features never-before-told stories from the pair’s inner circle.
Fox News Digital reached out representatives for Depp and Heard for comment.
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Loudenberg told Fox News Digital that while the relationship quickly disintegrated, the love Heard and Depp initially had for each other was the real deal.
“The people, the friends we talked to on both sides, said there was genuine love between them and that it was authentic,” she explained. “We tried to write that into the story. We feel that there was a love they had for each other. There was a special connection to each other, which makes it all the more tragic and sad.”
“It’s probably why it exploded so much,” Wholey shared. “It did seem like they really were in love with each other for a time. But we brought it back to this idea of Hollywood, the machinations of Hollywood, making everything distorted for people.
“It’s hard to find love in a hopeless place.”
Depp and Heard first met on the set of the 2011 film “The Rum Diary,” which was filmed in Puerto Rico. The book shared that when Depp first met Heard in his office, he took one look at her and thought, “Yep… That’s the one… she could definitely kill me.”
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While Heard already had a girlfriend, Hawaiian artist and model Tasya van Ree, Depp would later remark to director Bruce Robinson, “Don’t worry, no leading lady of mine stays gay for very long.”
When van Ree returned to Los Angeles, one crew member on set claimed Depp and Heard became “locked into that death dance.” A “mutual infatuation” quickly unfolded. A passionate kissing scene appeared to blur lines.
“It didn’t feel like a normal scene,” Heard later admitted. “It felt real.”
“The Rum Diary” opened to mixed reviews and was a flop at the box office. In 2012, Depp and long-term partner Vanessa Paradis announced their separation. The book shared that while they’d never married, Depp reportedly gave the French singer and model $100 million in the separation.
That same month, Depp gave Heard a $6,500 Palomino horse named Peaches and Creme. She renamed it Arrow. For his 49th birthday, she gave him a foot-long turquoise-handled knife.
As a romance blossomed, Heard didn’t appear fazed by the 22-year age difference.
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“All the guys I date are older than me,” Heard told a reporter a year before she met Depp, as quoted in the book. “It’s actually a sickness, like an addiction.”
According to the book, Depp’s childhood friend, Bruce Witkin, said he was stunned Depp jumped straight into another relationship. He encouraged him to remain a bachelor or “go Clooney it up.”
“We were also surprised to hear from people that there were … red flags,” Loudenberg told Fox News Digital. “I guess hindsight is 20/20. But if you have your best friend marrying someone that you have reservations about, but they’re really happy, are you going to go and raise any major concerns unless you’ve seen something that really should tell you to sway them in a different direction?
“I think it was just small enough that nobody wanted to say anything,” Loudenberg added. “And, also, from Amber’s side, her friends and family, we don’t know exactly what kind of red flags they maybe saw because we didn’t get to talk to her about that. But I’m sure that both sides can look back on it and see the writing on the wall.”
While Depp and Heard reportedly dated on and off throughout 2012, Depp vowed not to let someone like Heard “slip through his fingers.” According to the book, as the pair’s relationship grew more serious, Depp “drifted further away from his small and trusted network of family, friends and staff.”
In 2014, Heard was spotted wearing an engagement ring. By then, bitter fights were already occurring within the relationship, the book claimed.
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“Members of Johnny’s inner circle pleaded with Johnny to get a prenup,” the book says. “They said he initially agreed to do so but then dropped it and announced he was getting married anyway.”
Leading up to the wedding, Witkin spent time with Depp in the recording studio. That’s when Depp said Heard wanted to get married quickly. She pointed out that Depp was starting to film the next “Pirates of the Caribbean film,” which required a six-month shoot in Australia. He would have to live there full-time while filming, and she wanted stability in their relationship.
“She wanted to get it over with,” Witkin recalled. “[His sister] Christi [Dembrowski] was there, and we both told him, ‘So what? You don’t have to do it. Don’t do it.’ We’re trying to tell him, ‘Don’t do this until you get a prenup.’ And Johnny kind of says to Christie, ‘Well you tell her.’ Christi cried and tried to convince Johnny not to go ahead with it. I tried to convince him too.”
“The next thing I know it’s going along,” he said. “And, at first, I’m like, ‘Is this really happening?’ It was rushed to me. I was freaked out, but what am I gonna do, not go? I gotta try to be there to support him, you know.”
The book noted that, in 2015, there were two weddings in rapid succession — a small civil ceremony in Los Angeles and a larger celebration on Depp’s private island in the Bahamas within the week. The LA wedding was “hastily arranged.”
And by the time the couple said I do, the relationship was “severely troubled.”
“Most of the people in Johnny’s life were aware of the red flags in the relationship,” the book states. “In the early days, Jerry Judge, Johnny’s late chief of security, would tell [Depp’s assistant] Stephen [Deuters] and [his wife Gina] about having to separate Johnny and Amber so they’d stop arguing. Whenever Amber traveled with Johnny, his team always rented out an extra hotel room in case a fight broke out, and they needed to be sent to their own corners.”
“It was hard to see because we knew him in his prior relationships, and it was never like that,” said Gina, as quoted in the book. “Voices weren’t raised. It was such a stark difference with Amber. But if that’s what they want, then you’re going to support them, and you’re going to hope that it works out, and hope they find peace and happiness.”
The couple separated in 2016, but it was only the beginning of a very public breakdown of their relationship. Less than a week after filing for divorce, Heard filed a domestic restraining order against her husband on grounds of domestic abuse charges, People magazine reported.
Just one day ahead of their scheduled restraining order hearing, they reached a $7 million settlement in their divorce, the outlet reported. Their divorce was finalized in 2017.
Depp said he was libeled by Heard when she wrote a 2018 op-ed piece describing herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name because, they argued, it referenced abuse allegations Heard had made against Depp during divorce proceedings.
Heard said she was defamed by Depp when one of his lawyers called her abuse allegations a “hoax.”
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A high-profile trial ensued in 2022 in which the exes accused each other of physical and verbal abuse. The jury awarded Depp $10 million in damages but also awarded $2 million to Heard. Depp’s camp said the deal includes a $1 million payment from her to him to settle all financial claims.
“They both moved on and want to put this behind them and don’t want to be tied their entire lives to this trial,” Loudenberg told Fox News Digital.
“Sadly, they might not be able to escape that fate,” Wholey added. “This was such a huge thing. Anytime one of their names is printed, or there’s some mention of the trial or something like that, they’re together. Both largely don’t live here anymore in the U.S. I think they’re just trying to move on.”
