Inside Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis’ split before Amber Heard ‘seduced’ him

From the moment he locked eyes on Vanessa Paradis in the lobby of the Hotel Costes, Paris, in 1998, Johnny Depp was hooked.

“She was wearing a dress with an exposed back and I saw that back and that neck, and then she turned around and I saw those eyes, and - boom! My life as a single man was done,” Johnny, 57, once told the Daily Mail.

By that point, Vanessa had already been in love with him for years, having fallen for his charms when they met at his Los Angeles nightclub, the Viper Room, in 1993.

“The thing is, I loved him before I was with him, but we had met,” she previously told The Times.

"I remember perfectly the first time. He just shook my hand and I thought, ‘OK, that’s it’... He didn’t only look good, everything was good. He was so sweet, so different. He just seemed like a good person. I just knew... there was no one better.

The couple went on to have children Lily-Rose, 21, and Jack, 18, and enjoyed a quiet life living in a quiet village in the South of France.

They never married - something Johnny joked was down to him not wanting to spoil her surname, and in 2011 rumblings of trouble in paradise began to surface.

'Sources' claimed Johnny had grown restless and wanted out, while others alleged that Vanessa wanted to focus on kick-starting her own career after years of devoting herself to Johnny's.

Rumours swirled that the pair were living separate lives and had secretly split - something Johnny denied. And speculation was rife about his friendship with actress Amber Heard, 34.

The pair met on the set of 2011 film The Rum Diary, where Johnny played legendary gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson and Amber his love interest.

In early 2012 he was spotted boarding a private jet to Las Vegas with Amber and her then-girlfriend Tasya van Ree.

And just days after announcing his split from Vanessa, it was claimed Amber had become a regular visitor to the set of his film, The Lone Ranger.

Johnny would later admit Amber got 'into his head', with People magazine reporting he told the audience at the 31st Santa Barbara International Film Festival: "She was in my head, so I tracked her down. We tracked each other down. Actually, incidentally, it was amazing."

The pair went on to marry in 2015 before splitting in a blaze of acrimony the following year, with Johnny claiming in his recent libel case against The Sun that the breaking point came when Amber or one of her friends defecated in their marital bed - something she blames on her dog.

The actor, 57, is suing News Group Newspapers over a story published in The Sun in 2018 which branded him a 'wife beater' - a claim which he strenuously denies.

The libel trial kicked off at London's High Court earlier this week with both Johnny and Amber in attendance. There, he accused Amber of seducing him to advance her own fame.

In a witness statement, he told how they first met at the auditions and reconnected on the promo trail for the film.

He said: "She was then extremely friendly to me and keen to tell me about the break-up with her former partner that she had recently gone through.

‘If I had known then what I know now, I would have seen the red flag warning signs, but I did not.

She was beautiful, seemingly incredibly interested in me and my work, and I fell for it.

"She bombed me with what appeared to be love.

"It was not until much later that I understood that she had an agenda, namely to get married to me in order to progress her own career and/or to benefit financially, and she knew how to bring it about.

"For example, at the time, she repeatedly told me how much she admired my films; however, later in our relationship she admitted that she had never seen any of my films."

Vanessa submitted a statement to the courts in support of her ex last week describing him as a "kind, attentive, generous and non-violent person and father."

"On movie sets the actors, directors and entire crews adore him because he is humble and respectful to everyone, as well as being one of the best actors we've seen," she added.

Despite their sad split, the pair have worked hard to remain friends and Johnny is even said to have joined Vanessa and her husband Samuel Benchetrit for Christmas last year.

And in 2013, he said of their enduring friendship: "We’re on great terms and there’s nothing weird or strange. It’s very normal. She’s a great mommy and a great woman.

“If you love, you have to love beyond what you think is love. When the s*** hits the fan you have to keep loving.

"I know it sounds like some sort of Hallmark card, and I don’t mean it to, but you cannot abandon ship, you know.

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