Jennifer Grey Recalls Being Engaged to Johnny Depp and Matthew Broderick in the Same Month

Jennifer Grey was once engaged to both Johnny Depp and Matthew Broderick in the same month in 1988, a year after Dirty Dancing was released.

By Corinne Heller May 13, 2022 9:22 PMTags

While Baby wasn't put in the corner of this love triangle, she did cut it pretty close.

In the '80s, there was a period of time when Jennifer Grey was engaged to Matthew Broderick—then Johnny Depp just weeks later.

"It was really a sign that there was trouble afoot on my part," the Dirty Dancing actress shared on the May 12 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show. "I mean, honestly, I just thought it was God rescuing me from one bad situation, and just lovingly plopping me into a Johnny Depp soufflé."

Here's a quick timeline: Back in 1985, she met Broderick on set of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, in which they played brother and sister. In 1988, the actor proposed to her with a Tiffany & Co. diamond solitaire engagement ring, she writes in her new memoir Out of the Corner, but they soon split, after which she flew to Los Angeles.

 

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A week later, she went on a blind date, set up by her agent, with Depp, who said he had a massive crush on her after seeing Dirty Dancing.

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"You have to understand Johnny Depp, 1989 Johnny Depp, so beautiful," the actress told Drew Barrymore. "You've never seen a more beautiful, whoa."

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In her book, Grey wrote that two weeks after meeting Depp, he proposed, and later took her to Tiffany & Co. in Beverly Hills, where they picked out a small, emerald-cut diamond ring with small emerald baguettes. She revealed they soon moved in together, talked about starting a family, and got a puppy named Lulu.

But the couple's relationship didn't last long. Grey wrote that nine months after they met, she broke off their engagement.

Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images

Today, however, Depp is making headlines for an entirely different reason. He is currently involved in a defamation trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard, who he is suing for $50 million over a 2018 Washington Post essay, in which she described herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse" without mentioning the actor by name. Heard is countersuing Depp, who denies her allegations and has accused her of acting violent herself in their relationship, for $100 million. (For a full breakdown of the case, click here.)

"All I can say about that trial is that it breaks my heart for everybody involved," Grey told Entertainment Tonight earlier this month. "I just think it's sad and I wish it was resolved and I just wish everybody well."

 

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