Remembering Ledger’s “incredible sensitivity,” Williams said she’s thankful for their now 19-year-old daughter and the lessons she’s taught her about motherhood since the Dark Night actor’s passing.
Michelle Williams is sharing some rare insight into her relationship with the late Heath Ledger.
While appearing on the latest episode of Armchair Expert podcast, Williams called her former partner “so special” as she reflected on their time together and the daughter they share.
During Monday’s episode, co-host Dax Shepard shared his own personal connection to Ledger, who died of an accidental overdose in 2008 at the age of 28.
“I knew him a little bit when he was getting sober, and I don’t know that I’ve ever fallen in love with somebody so quickly,” Shepard recalled. “I [could] feel the weight of the world on him in a very special way that kind of broke my heart. I was very, very sad, and I thought he was just so special.”
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An emotional Williams echoed Shepard’s sentiment in a whisper, repeatedly saying Ledger was “so special.” She added that he had an “incredible sensitivity,” a trait Shepard also highlighted, saying the Dark Night actor had a “heart that [was] just leaking out everywhere.”
Williams and Ledger first met on the set of Brokeback Mountain in 2004, and welcomed their daughter Matilda in 2005. They would split in 2007 — just one year before his tragic passing.
“Thank God there’s Matilda,” Williams said of their now 19-year-old daughter. “I suppose maybe a good thing about being young is that you don’t have so much life experience that you can contextualize things.”
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While Williams didn’t touch on the immediate aftermath of Ledger’s death, during which actor Jeremy Strong moved in to help support her and Matilda, she did get candid about motherhood.
“When I make mistakes in front of my daughter and own up to them and apologize, it teaches her to apologize and say, ‘Oops, Mommy, I’m sorry,’ and it’s not a big deal,” she explained. “It’s part of life, and we move on. No shame, no blame. You made a mistake? Beautiful. I made five already today.”
Williams is now a mother of four, sharing her three younger children with husband Thomas Kail whom she married in 2020. The couple welcomed son Hart that same year, another child in 2022, and most recently had a baby via surrogate earlier this year.
