IN A recent interview with The Guardian, Michelle Williams recalled the intense paparazzi attention she experienced in 2008 following the passing of Heath Ledger.
In 2004, Williams and Ledger started dating after meeting on the set of the cowboy romance-drama Brokeback Mountain. Their daughter Matilda was born to Williams in 2005, and the couple split up in 2007.
Months later, Ledger passed away at age 28 from an accidental medicine overdose. This led to Williams and their daughter being hounded by the paparazzi in the aftermath.
Williams told The Guardian: “That feeling of being watched goes very, very deep, because it cuts you off from living your life. And for a while it felt like such an impediment to being natural and unguarded that my daughter and I moved outside of the city.”
She moved with her daughter to a farm in upstate New York, because she felt “more capable” of leading an unnoticed life there. “The particles shift under observation. I certainly felt that when we were living in Brooklyn.”
She also disclosed that one of the few close friends who moved into her house at that time was actor Jeremy Strong.
She said: “Jeremy was serious enough to hold the weight of a child’s broken heart and sensitive enough to understand how to approach her through play and games and silliness. Matilda didn't grow up with her father, but she grew up with her [’uncle’] Jeremy, and we were changed by his ability to play as though his life depended upon it, because hers did.”
The actress claimed that despite recently relocating back to Brooklyn, she still occasionally feels exposed as a result of her prior experiences with paparazzi.
Williams has continued working and starred in several hits in the years after Ledger’s death. In 2020, she married filmmaker Thomas Kail, with whom she shares two sons.
