In a new interview with Buzzfeed, Jenna Ortega looked back on the rumor that she was dating actor Johnny Depp, which emerged last fall. At the time, Ortega shot down the gossip in a post on her Instagram Story, and it sounds like she’s still in awe that it found purchase online. Read on for a look back at the rumor and what we know about it.
Ortega joined Buzzfeed for its “Puppy Interview” series on Monday – a video series where celebrities answer questions while surrounded by adorable dogs. When asked about the “craziest” rumor she’s ever heard about herself, Ortega responded: “Probably that I was in a serious relationship with Johnny Depp, and that I wanted everybody to ‘leave us alone.’ It’s so insane to me! Like, I never spoke on that, I never said anything like that. Articles really do just make up their own quotes.”
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The rumor originated with the Instagram account Deux Moi, which publishes unconfirmed rumors about celebrities often based on follower submissions. The account operators make it clear that they are not performing real journalism, yet the audience often has a hard time bearing that qualifier in mind. For Ortega, the notion that she was dating someone four decades older than her was funny, though the fact that so many commenters were willing to believe it was alarming.
“But I thought that that was pretty hilarious,” she told Buzzfeed this week. “I was on set with Richard E. Grant, and he came up to me and he just said: ‘Oh, so you and Johnny?’ And I laughed, because I… I don’t know that person!”
When Ortega issued her denial of the story, she was not so magnanimous. At the time, she wrote: “This is so ridiculous. I can’t even laugh. I have never met or worked with Johnny Depp in my life. Please stop spreading lies and leave us alone.”
Deux Moi had been heavily criticized before this story about Ortega, and has been criticized plenty of times since then as well. However, this is one of the cases where real news outlets gave the account too much credence as well. A report by The Daily Mail at the time speculated on how Deux Moi’s rumor could be true because Ortega had recently worked with filmmaker Tim Burton on Wednesday, and Burton is a known friend of Depp. They also pointed out that Wednesday was a Netflix original series, and Depp had recently been featured in Netflix’s docuseries Depp v. Heard at the time.
Ortega has worked hard to preserve her personal privacy, telling Vanity Fair that she hopes to keep her romantic life out of the headlines in general. The actress has six upcoming projects listed on her IMDb page, including Winter Spring Summer or Fall which premieres next Thursday, Sept. 5 and Bettlejuice Beetlejuice, which premieres on Friday, Sept. 6.
