Michelle Williams In Tears Over Heath Ledger, Angry At Paparazzi

Michelle Williams has started doing publicity for her upcoming independent film "Wendy and Lucy" and broke into tears during a Newsweek interview when the subject of her ex-fiance Heath Ledger, dad to daughter Matilda, came up.

Williams is jovial and chatty, until the conversation turns to Heath. You can see it's still difficult for her to talk about him, and she hasn't done so publicly until now. The first time Ledger's name comes up, she bursts into tears. "It's so sad," Williams says. When she's asked about how she's been doing in the past year, she's silent for a very long time. "I guess it's always changing," she says. There's another pause. "What else can I say?" Her voice is breathy and fragile, and she takes a few gulps of air. "I just wake up each day in a slightly different place--grief is like a moving river, so that's what I mean by 'it's always changing'." She stops again. "It's a strange thing to say"--her words unravel slowly, her eyes tear up--"because I'm at heart an optimistic person, but I would say in some ways it just gets worse. It's just that the more time that passes, the more you miss someone. In some ways it gets worse. That's what I would say."

As she walks back to her car, Williams spots an SUV parked on the side of the road. Is it the paparazzi? No, but her heart still sinks at the thought. The paparazzi are one topic that gets her so riled up, she spits out curse words. "It burns a fire inside of me, the s--- that I've seen people do to get at me or my daughter," she says. "I won't forget it, and I won't support it. I don't want my daughter growing up feeling spied on or threatened."

Read the whole interview here. Wendy and Lucy opens December 10.

Comments

[Idablu]

What happened to my post?

[learnsomething]

Bless her heart. My heart goes out to her. God bless you Michelle and Matilda.

[LiberalBuzz]

So sad, but at least his daughter will have his library of films to see her father and how he was becoming such a great actor. It's something.

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

She's so right about grief. It rarely gets "better', it just gets "different".

[susou]

I feel for her..

But so you people know, she was never married to Heath Ledger. She was engaged to him and then broke it off about 6 months before he died.

[bthechangeyouseek]

Relationships can be very deep, with or without marriage. The fact is they remained close through his trimumphs and trials. They shared a special bond...a child. I am sure this will be one of her deepest heartaches and in time, will manage to put on a happier face for the public, while she is still torn up inside.

[marred]

Ah yes us people know and us people don't really care whether they were married or not. Not being married doesn't make their relationship any less deep. A marriage license is a piece of paper usually and unfortunately followed by another piece of paper.

[lukebenjamin]

The media hassling Ms. Williams is terrible. WIth such a difficult death to deal with, they should most definitely give her space. And although I am not altering blame away from the paparazzi, we have to remember that this stuff sells. If they get that shot, they know that people will pay for that publication.

At a degree we are all to blame that society has become so eager to know every little detail of famous people, even to a level where we invade privacy in such a callous way. I know some celebrities bring it on themselves, and they have no one else to blame but themselves. For Ms. Williams, I know for sure she did not bring this on herself, she never deserved any of this attention. But unfortunately in the world we live in it is the price of fame. I feel humongous sympathy for her and hope she gets peace from this kind of attention in the future, but I fear that the paparazzi will be hounding her until they can fill magazines so we can all buy them. A thought that I am sure makes a lot of us sick.

[Mattie]

people who stalk another person for a picture are scum, but what about the people who buy those magazines. If you support it, you condone it. Not one dime of my money goes for those trashy magazines. The stories are usually crap anyway, so what's the point. It's not like they tell the truth.

[tomas0808]

Ledger was amazing. If anyone wants to see an amazing and overlooked movie of his check out 'Candy' where he plays a heroin addict in love with another heroin addict. A bit of a depressing portrayal but I can tell you from experience very accurate

[focks]

WTF is wrong with the media? Yeah, let's totally bring up this woman's dead husband.

[NoSillyName]

I certainly empathize with her. My one true love died in '84 and it still hurts when I think about the senseless death of a young person. At least there was no child involved.

[ConstitutionCrusader]

I could not take that. You are amazingly strong.

[pugzbarbq]

Heath Ledger r.i.p.

Ms. Williams is more than just the headline "Heath Ledger's widow." Apparently, she really cared for him, and lives every day with the loss. She's right, some deaths we never get over, we just learn to live with the loss. I hope for her and her daughter's sake that time will heal the wound, even though the scar will remain.

[sandy33]

Bless her broken heart.

[unfettered]

Well said!

[Paladine]

As a Woman who lost my Husband and Father of my 2 small Children through accidental death, I hear you, Michelle. Hang in there...

[OSA23]

empathy, like insensitivity, blinds and misleads the mind down a cul-de-sac of illusions and the deceptive horrors of choosing to live a life so blindly and ill-prepared.

i consider heath ledger first AND foremost as a human being dedicated BUT not prepared for his craft. in the military, you are taught to go beyond your set personal limits and to emerge from your shackles and from your ruins deeper as a human being closer to his and hers limitless potentials. hence, as many of my military friends have taught me, civilians are soft because civilians CHOOSE to lack the courage to endure. to this - heath ledger attempted to endure BUT turned towards the quick fix route of meds and more meds to dull the raging dragon instead of confronting the raging dragon. since learning about sleep patterns during a very interesting course in physiology for my masters in psychology - i have averaged about 5 hours for sleep. i am meditate, i eat very holistically, i train and condition in my own personal martial arts, and i confront myself daily.

heath ledger was an amazing actor - no doubt. but from his struggle, i have learned the importance of facing the raging dragon within to rise above the ruins and illusions of the self.

[NoMercy]

Careful there OSA23. A person is a microcosm of the state. The hard edge protects it from what would destroy it, so that the soft inward part can flourish. Hardness throughout is the formula for death.

[fcsakes]

You are so self absorbed you have neglected to notice that generalizations are a refuge of the weak.

[walleymr]

You are meditate?

[tomas0808]

Lol. Maybe he should consider a grammar course before he gets his Masters in Psychology

[sophieozz]

It amazes me that people can come to these discussions acting like they have full knowledge of a person or situation. You never can and you never do.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Clearly, a heart-ectomy was performed during boot camp.

To willfully conflate EMPATHY with INSENSITIVITY is the height of shallowness, fancy-pants prose notwithstanding.

For shame.

[Greytdog]

She described it perfectly: "grief is like a moving river, so that's what I mean by 'it's always changing'. . .It's just that the more time that passes, the more you miss someone. In some ways it gets worse. "
How true. How so very true.