They were the Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin of their day - young, beautiful and joined at the hip.
After locking eyes at the 1989 New York premiere of Great Balls of Fire!, Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder's passionate romance made them the It couple of the nineties.
And despite their devastating split four years later, the Hollywood stars always remained close. So much so that Winona, 48, this week defended Johnny against abuse claims in his defamation lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, 33, insisting she 'cannot wrap her head around' the accusations.
“The idea that he is an incredibly violent person is the farthest thing from the Johnny I knew and loved," she wrote in the declaration obtained by The Blast.
“He was never, never violent towards me... 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.”
Indeed, having only previously briefly dated actor Christian Slater, Johnny was a 17-year-old Winona's first big love.
“When I met Johnny, I was pure virgin,” she once said.
"He changed that. He was my first everything. My first real kiss. My first real boyfriend. My first fiancé. The first guy I had sex with."
They had their first date at a friend's house and she was struck by how 'shy' Johnny, then 26, was. And he was equally entranced, falling in love hard and fast.
"It was absolutely like nothing before," he previously said, "We hung out the whole day… and night, and we’ve been hanging out ever since. I love her more than anything in the whole world.”
They read Beat poetry together, collected first editions of books by the likes of Jack Kerouac and listened to their songs - Crazy For You by Madonna and Take My Breathe Away by Berlin.
Completely inseparable, the couple even co-starred in 1990 film Edward Scissorhands and after just five months of dating, Johnny asked her to be his wife.
“There’s been nothing in my 27 years that’s comparable to the feeling I have with Winona,” he told People magazine at the time.
And in another interview, the smitten star declared that he would lay down his life for the Mermaids actress, gushing: “I love her so much. I don’t know what I would do without her. I love that girl. I love her. I love her almost more than I love myself.”
But alas, in the summer of 1993 the couple split, with Winona's rep blaming their age, telling People: “They're young, and they grew apart.”
Johnny blamed his honesty, telling the Los Angeles Times: "It's very hard to have a personal life in this town. My relationship with Winona, it was my mistake to be as open as we were, but I thought if we were honest it would destroy that curiosity monster. Instead it fed it, gave people license to feel they were part of it."
Devastated, he returned to work on Ed Wood where director Tim Burton said he would turn up to work in floods of tears.
He recalled: “I felt so bad. I asked him why it happened but all he said was, ‘It wasn’t her fault, it was mine.’"
And according to Tim, the broken star was never the same, even when he started dating Kate Moss 12 months later.
"It wasn’t the same as Winona. I felt weird to be around him like he wasn’t acting like Johnny anymore. It’s almost like Winona took Johnny’s soul, Johnny’s love," he said.
For Winona, she spiralled into a dark depression and was prescribed sleeping pills after being diagnosed with anticipatory nostalgia - an acute sadness caused by leaving behind something treasured.
Going into self-destruct mode, she tried to drown her sorrows with booze but almost ended up dead when a lit cigarette set fire to her hotel room.
She said: "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.’”
With their relationship well and truly over there was only one thing left to do - and that was for Johnny to deal with his 'Winona Forever' tattoo.
Not wanting to get it removed, he instead humorously changed it to 'Wino Forever', explaining it felt more 'honest'.
"To have the tattoo removed, or erase it, is to try and say it never happened," he said. "If I alter it in some way, make it funny – put her next boyfriend’s name on top of it, say – it would still be honest."
