Jennifer Grey is speaking on how the fatal Matthew Broderick car crash still affects her today.
The 62-year-old recounts in her new book, Out of the Corner: A Memoir, how a week before the release of Dirty Dancing she was in a fatal car crash in Ireland with her then-boyfriend, Matthew.
Jennifer Grey Recounts How Fatal Matthew Broderick Car Crash ‘Led To So Many Other Things In My Life’–Like Possibly Her Engagement to Johnny Depp
The crash left two women dead. And Matthew Broderick was behind the wheel.
“The car accident in Ireland was, I would say, top three traumas of my life, maybe top one. It’s very hard to describe when you have a near-death experience and are present for the death of other people,” Grey told ET.
“… Being alone on a country road in the middle of nowhere with nobody else around or conscious was pretty terrifying… It led to so many other things in my life. I was the sole living witness because Matthew had survived, but he was unconscious and had amnesia, and was very badly injured. I thought he was dead,” she added. “I didn’t even know there were two other women who were tragically killed at the time. It’s just something that you just don’t come back from in the same way.”
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Grey said she still thinks about the tragedy. “I wasn’t holding any information that people seem to think I did because they wanted an answer and there was no answer because it was an accident,” she continued.
“And [Broderick] was a great driver, and nobody was drinking. It was just an accident. And it was tragic, and I think about the family in Ireland all the time.”
Grey and Broderick parted ways in 1998. The following year, Grey was set up on a blind date with Johnny Depp. The two dated for a year and even got engaged before splitting up.
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“We were young… To me, this guy was the answer to my problems. This guy was sweet, and loving, and romantic, and crazy about me, and beautiful. I was in desperate need of rebounding into something that looked and felt like 1989 Johnny Depp,” she told ET.
“Trust me, it was a very soft landing. It was necessary. I was bleeding out inside and this guy saved me and just made me… not feel what I was feeling.” Grey has accused Depp in her book of being “crazy jealous and paranoid.” Depp is currently in the midst of a defamation trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard.
“All I can say about that trial is that it breaks my heart for everybody involved,” Grey said. “I just think it’s sad and I wish it was resolved and I just wish everybody well.”
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