Three decades before the specialized press showered praise every time Zoë Kravitz and Harry Styles made an appearance, it was the actress’s father, Lenny Kravitz, and his then partner, the singer and actress Vanessa Paradis, who dominated the headlines for the same reasons. Their ability to coordinate styles unintentionally, their way of representing cool without trying, and a relationship so discreet that each joint appearance became an event made them one of the most enigmatic couples of the 1990s. Now that the musician’s only daughter has gotten engaged to the singer of Watermelon Sugar and every photo together is worthy of a style autopsy, it is fitting to take a closer look at the intimacy of a relatively brief couple — they were together for five years, from 1992 to 1997 — who, however, are worth remembering for obvious reasons: both were famous, handsome, and rich, but their story did not survive the demands of two life and professional trajectories moving at full speed.
“I was crazy in love with her. Vanessa was the perfect woman, but she came at the wrong time,” Kravitz confessed to Paris Match magazine during an interview in 2009. According to him, he was the one who introduced her to Johnny Depp, with whom Vanessa had a much more public, memorable, and decisive romantic relationship: they were together for 14 years and have two children in common, model and actress Lily Rose and her brother Jack. “I haven’t seen her again. She didn’t come to my concerts, we lost contact. I can only wish her happiness. But I’m not worried. I know that someday we will meet. And then we will talk about all this,” the musician, considered one of the sexiest men in the world, added at the time.
The relationship between Kravitz and Paradis began for professional reasons. The French singer, model, and actress admired his talent as a music producer and contacted him to collaborate on her third studio album and first in English. It was 1991, and Paradis had just broken up with her boyfriend, singer-songwriter Florent Pagny. That summer, they met in Paris to discuss the project details, and a year later they were seen together attending a tennis match during the Roland Garros tournament. It was their first public appearance outside a work context, and they did not disappoint: she wore a loose, white, carefree blouse paired with black pants, and he wore very tight jeans and a crochet top with nothing underneath. The finishing touch was tiny, round sunglasses to match. One of the most stylish couples of all time was born. Paradis was 19, and Kravitz was 27.
In September of that year, 1992, Vanessa Paradis’s self-titled album was released, and among the songs stood out the duet that united their voices forever: Silver and gold. Although during the promotion Kravitz praised his girlfriend’s brilliance — “She is a very intense young woman. She has a lot of talent,” he said — they were a very discreet couple, and their appearances together during the five years their love lasted can be counted on one hand. In fact, two years passed before they were immortalized at the Vivienne Westwood fashion show during Paris Fashion Week, and that same fashion week they also appeared at two other major events: Jean Paul Gaultier and Chanel. Her French-chic style perfectly matched his rock and bohemian spirit: beaded necklaces with a seaside market vibe, sunglasses indoors, and mixed prints were, thanks to them, the epitome of cool.
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To the dismay of those who fell for the talent and style of two of the great names of the nineties, their relationship ended in 1997. The reasons never became public, continuing the mystery and discretion that surrounded their relationship from the start. It also does not seem that any scandal caused the goodbye, which is rather attributed, as the singer himself said, to not meeting “at the right time.” At that time, he had just separated from Lisa Bonet, and in fact, their divorce was finalized in 1993, when he was already dating the Frenchwoman. Perhaps the recent breakup combined with incompatible schedules and all those reasons listed when a famous couple in love says goodbye were the causes of the end of a story that unfolded as it had begun: without media noise. The artist even congratulated her on her 48th birthday in 2020, making it clear that he has fond memories of that relationship. “Happy birthday to the one and only Vanessa Paradis,” Kravitz wrote on his Instagram account, accompanying an image in which they appear hugging, taken by fashion photographer Jean Baptiste Mondino. Images like that — even one where the couple poses with little Zoë, the singer’s only daughter — are shared from time to time on Instagram accounts dedicated to reminiscing about the nostalgia of those years, thus reviving interest in one of the most discreet and forgotten couples of the 90s.
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After the breakup, Paradis began the aforementioned relationship with Johnny Depp, and Kravitz continued to have a string of equally or more public romantic conquests. Examples include his relationship with Adriana Lima (2001-2003) or the one he had with Nicole Kidman, with whom he secretly got engaged despite only being together from 2003 to 2004. In the following years, the singer and songwriter has confessed to maintaining a celibate lifestyle marked by long periods of sexual abstinence for spiritual reasons. Meanwhile, Vanessa Paradis had a one-year 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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