Michelle Williams: Raising Matilda without her father Heath Ledger 'won't ever be right'

Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams in 2006 (Getty Images )

Michelle Williams has said raising her daughter without her child's late father Heath Ledger “won’t ever be right”.

Williams plays a grieving mother in the critically acclaimed film Manchester by the Sea. Reflecting on the parallels between herself and her character, the American actress said this role was one which evoked painful memories of Ledger’s death.

Ledger died of an accidental overdose after taking a cocktail of prescription drugs in 2008. He had split from Williams in 2007 and had recently finished filming Batman: The Dark Knight, winning an Oscar posthumously for his portrayal of The Joker. Their daughter Matilda was two at the time of his death.

“I couldn’t stop crying,” Williams told Porter Magazine. “It’s like the darkest part of your heart, something happening to your child... [Randi]’s making a brave choice, moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day. Because it is a choice.”

Williams met Ledger on the set of Brokeback Mountain in 2005 and gave birth to Matilda shortly before the film hit cinemas. They split a year later.

“Talk about a learning process,” Williams said of her position as a single mother now. “I think, God, what would I say about it? I feel really sensitive about it and certainly did not expect to still be dating at 36 with an 11-year-old. This is not what I imagined.

“In all honesty, for pretty much everything else, I feel like I’m a believer in not fighting circumstances, accepting where you are and where you’ve been.

“In pretty much all senses but one, I would be able to go totally down that line of thinking were it not for Matilda not having her dad."

In 2011, Williams told Elle how keeps her hair short in tribute to Ledger, the one man she says liked her pixie cut.

“What Matilda would love is for her mom to grow out the cropped hair, though that's unlikely to happen any time soon,” said Williams.

“I cut it for the one straight man who has ever liked short hair and I wear it in memorial of somebody who really loved it.”