Less than 24 hours after Heath Ledger’s former fiancée Michelle Williams and the couple’s 2-year-old daughter Matilda arrived at their Brooklyn home a growing collection of stuffed toys, flowers and candles has sprouted up near the entrance to their brownstone.
And in the hour since a New York funeral home director confirmed that memorial arrangements have been finalized for the 28-year-old actor found dead in his New York City apartment Tuesday paparazzi have once again gathered around Williams’ home—-the same one she and Ledger shared until they split last September.
Regardless of your indifference for pop culture and entertainment “news” you have to feel for the young mother. In the last 48 hours the 27-year-old actress found out the man she was at one point planning to marry and the father of her only child died; she then had to travel from a film set in Sweden back to New York, and now she must deal with the fact that more than 300 photographers have decided to make the sidewalk in from of her home their home away from home. That on top of the fact that at some point (if she hasn’t already) she must explain to a 2-year-old that she will never see her daddy alive again.
Making matters worse is the relentless digging of news reporters trying to uncover and subsequently broadcast every detail of her and Ledger’s life together.
I can’t imagine what that poor woman is going through.
There’s nothing like waking up to a report in the New York Post claiming your ex-fiancé’s new girlfriend tried to brush off attempts by a masseuse to call 911 for the man who once considered you the love of his life.
Back in September 2007 Ledger and Williams split rather inconspicuously saying the stress of fame forced their separation.
That was just four months ago.
In that time Ledger was spotted around town with a string of gorgeous celebrities such as Helena Christensen, Kate Hudson, Heather Graham, Gemma Ward and Lindsay Lohan, who reportedly told friends that she and Ledger planned to get together in New York this weekend.
Since his death Christensen has denied being romantically involved with Ledger, meantime Australian model Ward confirmed that she and the Oscar nominee did date following his split with Williams.
You have to think that Williams is being shielded by the litany of reports being written about her ex’s love life. But it might be harder to hide her from the growing speculation by some who claim that while she was very much in love with Ledger the actor’s decision to dabble in drugs kept their relationship from being one she could rely on.
A source close to the couple recently told an Australian paper that Ledger “adored Matilda, and when Michelle called it quits, he missed Matilda so much that he was thrown into a deep, dark depression.”
We may never know what led to Ledger’s death or what he was thinking or feeling the moments before he took his last breath, but what we do know is that there is a mother and a very young daughter who will—–at least for the foreseeable future—be hunted down by every photographer in town.
Which just makes this story even sadder.
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