Johnny Depp and Kate Moss, the most iconic couple of the '90s

Today, Kate Moss will testify on behalf of her ex-Johnny Depp during the defamation trial the actor has filed against ex-wife Amber Heard. Moss, a celebrity notoriously reluctant to talk about her private life in public, was called to testify after Heard named her during her own deposition, referring to an alleged incident that was never confirmed in which Depp allegedly pushed the model down a flight of stairs. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that although the three-year relationship that bound the two in the 1990s was quite turbulent, Moss has always spoken well of Depp and their relationship even though, by her own admission, their break-up left her in the grip of «years and years of crying». 

The two met for the first time in New York, at Café Tabac, one of the cult East Village venues of the time. During those years it was not difficult to see Moss, Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista spending their evenings there. Just inside that bar one day, 31-year-old Johnny Depp was having dinner in a back lounge when journalist George Wayne, meeting Kate and Naomi as they entered the bar, got the idea to make introductions. «I knew from the first moment we talked that we were going to be together», Kate later had to say, as People reports. Both of them were on the crest of a wave in 1994-Kate was walking the runway for any brand thinkable in all the fashion capitals of the world, from Prada to Helmut Lang, while Johnny, who only four years earlier had shot Edward Scissorhands with Tim Burton, was looking at the rise of his career-that year Ed Wood would be released and then, the following year, Don Juan de Marco and Dead Man. When the relationship between the two became public, the media attention was enormous. In those days Kate virtually owned no fixed abode, constantly traveling around the world for her many and varied jobs, while Johnny, who had invested in the Viper Room in Los Angeles, frequented the hot spots of the time such as the Chateau Marmont and the Hollywood Roosevelt, sometimes accompanied by Kate and sometimes not.

Already at the time, the two were known for their rampant passion, which often resulted in very heated and very public arguments, but the climax of this early season of love between the two occurred when, in September '94, Johnny Depp was arrested at 5:30 a.m. at the Mark Hotel in New York City for trashing a hotel room during an argument with Kate, who, however, when the authorities arrived bore no traces to suggest that the altercation had turned physical. The matter was resolved easily though: although suspected of being in an altered state, a judge dropped the charge against Depp on the condition that the actor commit no further crimes in the next six months and repay the hotel for the damage caused and nuisance - an amount that came to around $9,000. The two, however, remained famous for their many public outpourings and certain luxurious tantrums such as residing at the Ritz Hotel when Johnny was in Paris, although Kate had an apartment because the actor preferred to live among the comforts of the luxury hotel.

For about a year and a half all was silent - the two were often photographed together, and public adoration for the couple grew along with their careers. A new episode brought the couple back into the headlines on the occasion of Kate's 21st birthday. To mark the occasion Johnny hosted a party at the Viper Room in West Hollywood. The venue had a reputation for extravagance: it was at its door that River Phoenix had the overdose that would later kill him a few hours later at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. During that birthday party, while Johnny was on stage singing, actor Jason Donovan had a cocaine overdose, which, fortunately, he overcame without harm. Meanwhile, Johnny was going through a complex time in his career with the indie films in which he had starred not being commercially or critically successful-which helped create the atmosphere that then led to the break-up of the two in 1997. At the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, the two returned to the red carpet together, an episode that was not followed up and was drowned out by gossip hype when Kate Moss was banned for life from the Hôtel du Cap for walking around the halls in a bikini and destroying one of the rooms. Speaking to Hello! Magazine the same year Depp explained: 

«I have been so stupid because we had so much going for our relationship. I'm the one who has to take responsibility for what happened – I was difficult to get on with, I let my work get in the way and I didn't give her the attention I should have done. The whole thing was crazy because I should never have got so worked up over what people had to say about my work. Sure, I should care about my movies but when I get home, I should try to leave that stuff behind. I couldn't do that, and I was horrific to live with. Trust me, I'm a total moron sometimes».