Three decades before the entertainment press started showering Zoë Kravitz and Harry Styles with praise every time they made an appearance, the actress’s father Lenny Kravitz and his girlfriend at the time, singer and actress Vanessa Paradis, were making headlines for the same reason. Their capacity to coordinate outfits without trying, the way they represented cool without looking for it, and a relationship so discreet it rendered each appearance together a news event, made them one of the most enigmatic couples of the 1990s. Now that the musician’s only daughter has gotten engaged to the former One Direction singer, with each of their paparazzi shots apparently worthy of stylistic autopsy, it seems relevant to look at the intimacy of this relatively short-lived pair — they were together for five years, from 1992 to 1997 — who are nonetheless worthy of posterity, for rather obvious reasons. Both were famous, hot, and rich, but their connection didn’t manage to survive the demands of top-speed personal and professional trajectories.
“I was madly in love with her. Vanessa was the perfect woman, but she came at the wrong time,” Kravitz confessed to the magazine Paris Match in a 2009 interview. According to Kravitz, he was the one who introduced her to Johnny Depp, with whom she would later have a much higher-profile, better-remembered romantic relationship. Paradis and Depp were together for 14 years and had two children together; model-actress Lily-Rose and her brother Jack. “I have never seen her since. She did not come to my concerts; we did not have any more contact. I can only wish her happiness. But I am not worried. I know that one day we will run into each other. And it will be time to talk about all this,” added Kravitz, who is considered one of the world’s sexiest men.
Kravitz and Paradis’s relationship began under professional auspices. The French singer, model and actress admired his talent as a music producer and got in contact with him to collaborate on her third studio album, her first in English. It was 1991 and Paradis had just broke up with her boyfriend, singer-songwriter Florent Pagny. In the summer of 1992, the two met in Paris to talk over the project’s details and later, were seen together attending a tennis game during the French Open. It was their first public appearance out of work, and they did not disappoint. She wore a loose, white, unworried blouse with black pants and he, tight jeans and a crochet top with nothing underneath. They sported matching minuscule, round sunglasses. It was the birth of one of the most stylish couples of all time. Paradis was 19 years old and Kravitz, 27.
In September of the same year, Paradis’s eponymous album was released. Among its standout songs was one that united the pair’s voices forever: Silver and Gold. Despite Kravitz paying homage to his girlfriend’s genius during the press cycle — “Vanessa is a very intense young lady. I think she’s extremely talented,” he said — they were a very discreet couple, and their appearances together while their love lasted can be counted on the fingers of one hand. In fact, two years would pass before they were immortalized at the Vivienne Westwood catwalk during Paris Fashion Week, and they were also seen at two other great runways: those of Jean-Paul Gaultier and Chanel. Her French, chic style went perfectly with his rock ‘n’ roll, bohemian spirit. Beaded necklaces with a seaside flea market vibe, sunglasses worn indoors and a mix of prints became, thanks to them, the epitome of cool.
To the despair of those who had fallen captive to their talent and superlative style, the pair broke up in 1997. The reasons were never made public, in keeping with the mystery and discretion that enveloped their relationship from the start. It does not seem that any scandal was behind their split, but rather, as the singer himself has reflected, they had met each other “at the wrong time.” He had just ended things with Lisa Bonet — in fact, their divorce became official in 1993, when he was already dating Paradis. Perhaps that recent breakup, added to the incompatibility of their schedules, had to do with the end of a story that, like its beginning, unfurled without any high-profile rumblings. Kravitz even congratulated Paradis on her 48th birthday in 2020, making it clear that he had fond memories of their relationship. “Happy birthday to the one and only Vanessa Paradis,” he posted on Instagram, under a photo of the two of them embracing taken by fashion photographer Jean Baptiste Mondino. Images like that one — including one in which the couple poses with young Zoë — are shared by Instagram accounts dedicated to 1990s nostalgia, reviving interest in one of the under-the-radar celebrity couples of the era.
After their breakup, Paradis began her famous relationship with Depp and Kravitz continued down a list of more or less high-profile romantic conquests. Examples include his relationship with Adriana Lima from 2001 to 2003 and his time with Nicole Kidman, to whom he was secretly engaged despite their time together only lasting from 2003 to 2004. In the years to follow, the singer and composer has confessed that he has maintained a kind of celibate life marked by long periods of sexual abstinence for spiritual reasons. For her part, Paradis had a year-long relationship with French singer and producer Benjamin Biolay after her separation from Depp, and has been married since 2018 to director and writer Samuel Benchetrit.
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