Life with ex-partner Vanessa Paradis was ‘bliss’, says actor Johnny Depp
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US actor Johnny Depp poses at his art exhibition titled A Bunch Of Stuff in Tokyo on Nov 27, 2025.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
- Johnny Depp described his life with Vanessa Paradis as "bliss," highlighting his role as a "tour father" while she toured.
- Depp's marriage to Amber Heard ended in scandal, with a lost libel case in 2020 but a successful defamation trial in 2022.
- Depp debuted his art collection in Tokyo, stating creating art is a "necessity," with his previous collection selling out quickly.
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TOKYO - Johnny Depp’s life with former French partner Vanessa Paradis and their two children was “bliss”, the American actor said in an interview in Tokyo on Nov 27.
“I have nothing but incredible memories from those days. They gave me time to be a tour father.
“Vanessa was doing her shows, you know, various tours. I got to be just daddy for a while,” the 62-year-old said.
“Hence, the title of her (2000 album) Bliss. It was bliss.”
Depp was together with the 52-year-old French actress, singer and model from 1998 to 2012. They are parents to actress Lily-Rose Depp, 26, and son Jack, 23.
The Pirates Of The Caribbean (2003 to 2017) and Edward Scissorhands (1990) star has had a string of relationships with other celebrities, including American actress Winona Ryder and English supermodel Kate Moss.
His brief marriage to American actress Amber Heard, 39, which ended in 2017, provoked the most headlines.
He tried to sue The Sun newspaper in 2020
Their marriage was raked over in even more lurid detail during a defamation trial
The trial was a lightning rod for opposing sides of the #MeToo debate and Depp remains a toxic figure for many, particularly in the US.
He lost his role
Depp said at that festival most of the newspaper stories about him were “fantastically, horrifically written fiction”.
Vanessa Paradis was with Johnny Depp from 1998 to 2012. The couple have two children together.
PHOTO: REUTERS
He directed 2024’s biopic of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani - titled Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness - and appears in the 2026 movies Day Drinker and Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol.
“What excites me today, what can kind of give me a little bit of a jolt of electricity, is something that surprises me,” Depp said.
Exploding brain
He spoke to AFP at the opening of A Bunch Of Stuff, an exhibition in Tokyo of dozens of his artworks made over three decades, following the show’s debut in New York.
“Acting is a form of expression, music certainly the same, and painting, drawing, creating something,” he told a news conference.
“I find that that is the one true, constant necessity that I must have. Otherwise, my brain will explode.”
Visitor checking out Johnny Depp’s artworks on display in Tokyo, Japan, on Nov 27.
PHOTO: EPA
Artwork by Depp in his debut collection Friends And Heroes in Britain in 2022 sold out within hours, according to art retailer Castle Fine Art.
Depp, who is also a musician, made 3 million pounds and sold 780 prints through the art house’s 37 galleries, media reports said.
“I don’t claim to be anything other than at most someone who paints. I am not even a painter really,” he said. AFP

