Heath Ledger’s dad Kim opens up about Michelle Williams’ secret wedding

HEATH Ledger’s father has spoken about his son’s ex-girlfriend Michelle Williams’ secret marriage to musician Phil Elverum, which took everyone by surprise.

Michelle Williams on the red carpet with her then-fiance Heath Ledger at the 78th annual Academy Awards.

HEATH Ledger’s father has wished his son’s ex-girlfriend Michelle Williams the best on her marriage to musician Phil Elverum earlier this month.

“We are terribly happy, it is great,” Kim Ledger told Fairfax Media.

He wasn’t at the wedding but Mr Ledger said that he hopes to meet Elverum “soon.”

“She’s very private and I don’t really like to make too many comments about her,” he added. “But we are very happy (for her).”

MORE: How Michelle Williams wed in secret

Kim Ledger, centre, with Heath’s sister Kate, left, and his wife Ines, right. Picture: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images.

Williams, 37, told Vanity Fair she married the indie rocker at a private ceremony in the Adirondacks, New York.

Williams’ 12-year-old daughter, Matilda, who she had with Ledger, and Elverum’s three-year-old daughter were present.

She described her relationship with Elverum, whose first wife died of pancreatic cancer, as “very sacred, very special”.

Michelle Williams September 2018 Vanity Fair cover. Picture: Collier Schorr for Vanity Fair.

Michelle Williams with Heath Ledger at the Australian premier of Brokeback Mountain. Picture: Steve Holland/AP.

Williams and Ledger ended their three-year romance a few months before his 2008 death at age 28 of an accidental prescription drugs overdose.

“I never gave up on love,” she said.

“I always say to Matilda, ‘Your dad loved me before anybody thought I was talented, or pretty, or had nice clothes.’ Obviously I’ve never once in my life talked about a relationship but Phil isn’t anyone else.”

Williams said she was speaking out in the hope her experience would help others who are struggling to find love after losing a partner.

Michelle Williams and her daughter Matilda Ledger as seen on March 6, 2013 in New York. Picture: NCP/Star Max/FilmMagic.

“I don’t really want to talk about any of it,’ she said. ‘But there’s that tease, that lure, that’s like, ‘What if this helps somebody? What if somebody who has always journeyed in this way, who has struggled as much as I struggled, and looked as much as I looked, finds something that helps them.

“Don’t settle. Don’t settle for something that feels like a prison, or is hard, or hurts you. If it doesn’t feel like love, it’s not love,” she said.

Elverum has also suffered the loss of a partner. He was married to Canadian musician Geneviève Castrée for 13 years. Four months after they had their daughter she was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer and died 13 months later in 2016.

Mount Eerie and The Microphones musician Phil Elverum. Picture: Jordi Vidal/Redferns via Getty Images

The US actress also spoke of how she and Matilda were hounded by media in the months after Ledger’s death.

“I’ll never forget going to the post office and seeing a sign hung on the wall for anyone with information about myself and my daughter, to please call this number. Um, so I took that down,” she told Vanity Fair.

“When you’re a single parent, and that element of provider and protection is missing, it’s scary,” she added.

Williams also opened up about her experience with income disparity in Hollywood and the Time’s Up movement.

In January, USA Today revealed Williams was paid less than one-tenth of 1 per cent of her male co-star Mark Wahlberg’s fee for the reshoots of Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World.

It was a disceprency so egregious it caused a massive outcry online and prompted Wahlberg to donate his entire reshoot fee to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, and the agency repressing both actors, William Morris Endeavor, to donate an additional $500,000.

“I’ve never really been at the centre of something like that, of a news cycle like that — other than, you know, traumatic death,” she told Vanity Fair.

“You feel totally devalued. But that also chimes in with pretty much every other experience you’ve had in your workplace, so you just learn to swallow it.”

However, she said the results motivated her to become a fierce advocate in the fight for change.