How Amber Heard broke Elon Musk's heart and left tech tycoon 'hurt and depressed' by romance

Daily Mail​

21-07-2025

A new book recounting the car-crash marriage between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard also charts how the actress broke Elon Musk's heart nearly a decade ago.
While their romance started out smoothly, what no one knew until much later was that Amber and Elon's relationship was also turbulent and toxic, plagued by fighting, jealousy and dramatic accusations.
Elon's inner circle would go on to state strikingly similar things about Amber's character as Johnny's people, according to the tome Hollywood Vampires by Kelly Loudenberg and Makiko Wholey.
Soon after Johnny and Amber's relationship impoloded and a restraining order against Johnny was granted in May 2016, a large plant was delivered to Amber's Los Angeles apartment, with a card reading: 'I had a wonderful weekend with you – E.'
According to the sworn testimony of the concierge, Elon already had his own key fob for the penthouse garage and had been visiting Amber regularly for over a year, late at night, when Johnny was away.
In late June, Amber surprised Elon for his birthday. She flew to the Tesla factory in Fremont, California.
On the way she picked wildflowers, and when she arrived, his security team helped her hide in the back of a Tesla. As Elon approached the car, Amber popped out of the back, clutching a bouquet.
Two weeks later, in mid-July, Elon and Amber were spotted together in Miami, Florida. Amber was there with her sister, Whitney.
The trio stayed in poolside villas at the Delano Hotel in South Beach, and Elon flew Amber and Whitney up to Cape Canaveral, where a SpaceX launch of Falcon 9 was scheduled to take place.
Amber told Elon's biographer Walter Isaacson that it was 'the most interesting date' she'd ever been on. These were the first buds of a relationship that would grow into something serious.
What no one knew until much later was that Amber and Elon's relationship was also turbulent and toxic, plagued by fighting, jealousy and dramatic accusations.
As she was rebuilding her life and leaning into activism - when she briefly became an icon for the MeToo movement - things were heating up with Elon.
Soon she'd be returning to Australia's Gold Coast to film Aquaman, only this time she'd be travelling with Elon instead of Johnny.
In Australia, Elon rented Amber a beautiful home. Here, away from the office, his infatuation became problematic for executives at SpaceX and Tesla. For the first time, Elon was distracted from his life's work.
'It would be a Tuesday night and she would keep him up all night. There was a blatant disregard for the fact he had tens of thousands of employees and he had responsibilities,' said a source.
'She did more to slow the advancement of electric cars than the CEO of Exxon Mobil.'
Elon himself later described the relationship with Amber as the most agonizing of all his romantic relationships.
'It was brutal,' he said. For a man who has trouble accessing his humanity, Elon found that Amber evoked the most human of emotions: he was lovesick.
A few months after the Australia trip, during an interview for Rolling Stone, a flustered Elon excused himself and had a pep talk with his chief of staff, Sam Teller.
A few minutes later, he confessed to the reporter that he and Amber had just broken up and he 'was really in love and it hurt bad'.
In fact, he'd barely been able to function at the launch of his Tesla Model 3 the night before.
'I've been in severe emotional pain for the last few weeks. Severe. It took every ounce of will to be able to do the Model 3 event and not look like the most depressed guy around.
'For most of that day, I was morbid. And then I had to psych myself up: drink a couple of Red Bulls, hang out with positive people and then tell myself, "I have all these people depending on me. All right, do it!"'
This breakup wouldn't be their last - Amber and Elon continued to see each other, on and off, throughout the rest of 2017.
A friend of Amber's, who asked us not to use her name, remembered a conversation in which Amber told her Elon was crazy, possessive and jealous, and that he'd placed cameras in her house, bugged her car, and was following her.
But Amber's friend was sceptical: 'This is exactly the same s*** we just did with this other guy, Johnny. How is no one seeing this?'
On a trip to Rio de Janeiro in December 2017, Amber and Elon had a fight that ended their relationship for good.
Amber locked herself in their hotel room and started screaming that Elon had taken her passport and that she was scared she'd be attacked.
Hotel security guards and Elon's sister-in-law, who was also on the trip, assured Amber that no one was trying to hurt her, she was safe, her passport was securely in her bag. She could leave whenever she wanted.
But Kimbal, Elon's brother, said Amber's ability to shift her own reality was shocking.
'She really is a very good actress, so she will say things that you're like "Wow, maybe she's telling you the truth' but she isn't."'
After the split, Amber texted her agent, Christian Carino, who had arranged mediation between her and Johnny the year before: 'Dealing with break-up. I hate when things go public. See I'm so sad.'
'You weren't in love with [Elon],' Christian replied.
'You told me 1,000 times you were just filling space. Why would you be sad if you weren't in love with him to begin with?'
Amber asked Christian to give Johnny a letter she wrote expressing her love for him and apologizing for what happened.
'God I miss him,' she said.