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Topics: Celebrity, Johnny Depp
Ali Condon
Winona Ryder has opened up about her split from Johnny Depp and admitted that she 'wasn't taking care of [her]self' after the relationship broke down.
The Edward Scissorhands co-stars began dating in 1989 and quickly became one of the top '90s 'It' couples.
Despite their eight-year age gap, the couple enjoyed a whirlwind romance and even got engaged after just five months together.
However, after four years together, the couple eventually split in 1993. While Johnny went on to date Kate Moss, Vanessa Paradis, and Amber Heard, Winona ended up with both Dave Pirner and Matt Damon before she met her current partner Scott Mackinlay Hahn.
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In a new interview with Harper's Bazaar this week, the Stranger Things star opened up about the immense 'pain' she went through after her split from Depp, comparing herself to her famous character Susanna from the 2000 film Girl, Interrupted.
"That was my Girl, Interrupted real life," she said, recalling life after the highly publicised break-up.
Winona went on to say that her The Age Of Innocence co-star Michelle Pfeiffer tried to support her through her darker days by reminding her that things would eventually feel normal again.
“I remember Michelle being like, ‘This is going to pass.’ But I couldn’t hear it," said Ryder.
“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.”
Winona says it was an 'incredible therapist' who eventually helped her to pull herself out of the pit of despair she had found herself in by encouraging her to imagine being a younger version of herself.
"I remember, I was playing this character who ends up getting tortured in a Chilean prison," she said, referring to her role in the 1994 drama The House of the Spirits.
“I would look at these fake bruises and cuts on my face [from the shoot], 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.”
Despite the devastating split, it appears that Winona and Johnny have stayed on good terms in the years since.
In 2020, during Depp's defamation trial against The Sun, Winona spoke out on behalf of her ex, insisting that he was a 'good man' and that she had always felt 'very safe with him'.
She said at the time: “The idea that he is an incredibly violent person is the farthest thing from the Johnny I knew and loved,” she said in a statement then. “I cannot wrap my head around these accusations. He was never, never violent towards me. He was never, never abusive at all towards me. He has never been violent or abusive towards anybody I have seen.”
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