Michelle Williams usually keeps her private life under wraps, and little has been made public about her love life in the past decade. However, in a cover story for the September issue of Vanity Fair, the actress opened up about finding love after losing her first husband, Heath Ledger, to accidental overdose in 2008.
Williams revealed that she recently married singer-songwriter Phil Elverum, who performs under the name Mount Eerie, and previously as The Microphones. Like Williams, Elverum lost his spouse, Genevieve Castree, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2016. Both were left single parents of young daughters. Both Matilda and Elverum’s 3-year-old daughter were present at the couple’s small, private wedding ceremony in the Adirondacks. All four now live together in Brooklyn.
“I never gave up on love”: In our September cover story, Michelle Williams reveals her recent marriage, a new outlook on her career, and the lessons she learned from the pay-gap scandal that rocked Hollywood. https://t.co/sJGGrNEoxf pic.twitter.com/xMKtQAMl5G
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) July 26, 2018
In the interview, Williams addressed what makes Elverum so special to her.
“Ultimately, the way he loves me is the way I want to live my life on the whole,” she told the magazine. “I work to be free inside of the moment. I parent to let Matilda be free to herself, and I am finally loved by someone who makes me feel free.”
In the wake of Ledger’s death, Williams moved to upstate New York to escape the constant presence of the paparazzi and raise Matilda in a quiet and safe environment. Despite her tragic loss, she works hard to keep the memory of her late husband alive for their daughter.
“I never gave up on love,” she told Vanity Fair. “I always say to Matilda, ‘Your dad loved me before anybody thought I was talented, or pretty, or had nice clothes.’ ”
We’re so glad that Williams got her happy ending!
You can read the whole article in the September issue of Vanity Fair, out on newsstands now.