Few things capture popular culture’s obsession with nostalgia quite like celebrity couples from the 1990s.
There was Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, and Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman... to name a few.
But for fashion fans, there’s one relationship that always stood out: Kate Moss and Johnny Depp.
She was the waif model-of-the-moment; he was the superstar actor that everyone adored. Together, they were the ultimate 1990s power couple.
Of course, this perception has changed substantially since allegations of domestic abuse against Depp emerged in 2016 following the dissolution of his marriage with fellow actor Amber Heard.
In 2020, London’s High Court found claims that Depp was a “wife beater” to be “substantially true”.
Now, the former couple are in the courts yet again as Heard is being sued by her ex-husband for $50m (£39.6m) for allegedly implying he abused her in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed.
While she didn’t name him in the article, Depp claims her allegations hindered his ability to work. She is pursuing a counterclaim of $100m (£79.9m).
Now, as part of the trial, it’s believed that Moss will testify on Wednesday as a rebuttal witness for Depp.
The model’s involvement has come about in court after Heard mentioned a rumour about an alleged altercation between Moss and Depp when they dated.
But how long did Moss and Depp date for? And why did their relationship come to an end? Here’s everything you need to know.
1994: An introduction
The couple are believed to have met in 1994 at at New York’s Café Tabac. He was 31 at the time; she was 20.
Writer George Wayne claims that he introduced the pair, writing in an Instagram post: “Johnny was in the back having dinner and Kate walked in with Naomi [Campbell] and The GW grabbed her and made the introduction.”
Given the nature of their respective profiles at the time, it wasn’t long before the press cottoned on to the relationship, with the couple garnering plenty of attention everywhere they went, frequenting places in LA such as the Chateau Marmont and the Hollywood Roosevelt.
“They can’t keep their hands, lips, mouths, legs off of each other,” a friend of Depp’s told People in 1994.
1994: An alleged altercation
In September 1994, Depp was arrested for criminal mischief at New York’s Mark Hotel after allegedly trashing a hotel room he had been staying in with Moss following an argument.
Depp did not face criminal charges but was ordered to pay the hotel over $9,000, according to People, which also reports that the police found Depp “in a state of possible intoxication” while Moss remained uninjured.
“I think Johnny obviously has a temper,” the actor’s friend, director John Waters, told People at the time. “But this is a very minor incident. The room service must have been bad.”
1997: A short break
The couple are believed to have called off their relationship in 1997.
A friend of Moss’s told The New York Post at the time that the actor “broke her heart” and that the model went “mad” over the split.
1998: Reunion at Cannes
It appears that the couple briefly rekindled their relationship at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival before calling it quits for good.
Moss wore one of her most beloved looks to date: a tight-fitting black dress with a feather trim on the neckline.
At the time, Moss was reportedly reprimanded for wearing her bikini in the hallway of the prestigious Hotel du Cap.
The legacy
Both Depp and Moss have spoken publicly about their relationship since its dissolution.
In 2005, Depp said of the relationship: “My work got in the way, and I didn’t give her the attention she needed. I don’t think I was very good for her...”
In 2012, Moss told American Vogue how Depp always took her to the Ritz in Paris.
“He always stayed there,” she said. “I had an apartment in Paris at the time, but he said, ‘No, we’re staying at the Ritz.’
“So he came by and swept me up to the Ritz – he didn’t want to slum it in my apartment.”
That same year, the model told Vanity Fair how Depp made her feel cared for.
“There’s nobody that’s ever really been able to take care of me,” she said. “Johnny did for a bit. 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!”
