Jenna Ortega has faced her fair share of strange rumors since rising to global fame, but one in particular still stands out as the most bizarre to her: speculation that she was secretly dating Johnny Depp.
The claim, which spread rapidly online last year, paired the then-21-year-old Wednesday star with the 60-year-old Hollywood veteran, despite the two never having met.
The story appears to have originated from an anonymous submission to the celebrity gossip account Deuxmoi, which suggested the pair had been spotted together. However, Deuxmoi itself makes clear in its bio that its content is unverified and often based purely on hearsay. Despite this disclaimer, whispers of an Ortega-Depp romance circulated quickly, fueling articles, online debates, and fabricated quotes attributed to Ortega.
When asked about the wildest rumor she had ever heard about herself during an interview with BuzzFeed while promoting Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Ortega didn’t hesitate to bring up the Depp speculation. “Probably that I was in a serious relationship with Johnny Depp and I wanted everybody to ‘leave us alone,’” she said with disbelief. She explained that she had never made such a statement, nor had she ever spoken to Depp, but admitted the absurdity of the situation made her laugh.
Ortega recalled being on set with her co-star Richard E. Grant when he teasingly mentioned the rumor to her. “He came up to me and he just said, ‘Oh, so you and Johnny,’ and I laughed because, I don’t know that person,” Ortega said. Her blunt response, “I don’t know that person”, quickly caught the attention of fans online, who praised her for handling the situation with a mix of honesty and humor. One social media user wrote: “She really said I’ve never heard of that man in my life,” while another called her response “the perfect way to shut down a fake story.”
Depp’s representatives also addressed the situation directly, issuing a statement that firmly rejected the speculation. “Mr. Depp has no personal or professional relationship with Ms. Ortega whatsoever. He has never met her or spoken to her,” the statement read. “He is not involved in any project with her, nor does he intend to be. He is appalled by these baseless and malicious rumours that are intended to harm his reputation and career.”
For Ortega, the episode reinforced why she chooses to keep her private life out of the public eye. In an interview with Vanity Fair earlier this year, she explained that she has no plans to discuss her relationships publicly. “I don’t plan on speaking about my love life, because that’s mine,” she said. “When you know too much about someone’s personal life, then you watch films and you can only see them [as the celebrity version of themselves], and there’s nothing worse.”
The Depp rumor may have been fleeting, but it offered a striking reminder of how quickly misinformation spreads in celebrity culture, and why Ortega continues to prioritize boundaries between her personal life and her career.