Michelle Williams Reveals Succession’s Jeremy Strong Moved In With Her After Ex Heath Ledger’s Death

She suffered tragedy in 2008 when her former partner Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose.

But Michelle Williams revealed Tuesday in a new Variety profile that her friend Jeremy Strong was by her side to help her through the tremendous loss.

The 41-year-old Oscar nominee shared that the 43-year-old Succession star helped care for her and Heath’s daughter, Matilda, while helping ease the girl’s pain.

“Jeremy was serious enough to bear the weight of a child’s broken heart and sensitive enough to understand how to approach her through play, games and silliness,” she said.

The Trial Of The Chicago 7 star moved in with Michelle, along with her sister and another friend shortly after Heath’s death.

The actress noted that her daughter, now 16, missed meeting her father, but Jeremy’s presence was important in learning to move on.

‘[Matilda] She didn’t grow up with her father, but she grew up with her Jeremy and she changed us her ability to play like her life depended on it, because hers did,” he continued.

The Certain Women star met her future partner Heath on the set of Brokeback Mountain, and the two became a couple later in 2004.

The two also appeared together in the critically acclaimed experimental Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There, although their characters did not share any scenes.

The couple welcomed daughter Matilda in October 2005, with Heath’s Brokeback Mountain co-star Jake Gyllenhaal as her godfather, while Busy Philipps, who appeared with Michelle in Dawson’s Creek, was her godmother.

The two moved to Brooklyn together that year, but their relationship fizzled out in 2007.

Ledger died in 2008, shortly before the release of The Dark Knight, in which he appeared as a chilling version of the Joker.

The role earned him widespread praise from fans and critics alike, and he was honored with a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Michelle seemed eager to defend her friend Jeremy following the publication of a controversial New Yorker profile that traced his astonishing rise to fame and his extreme and immersive acting techniques, often misdescribed as ‘method acting’.

Many readers, including friends of his subject, found the piece to make fun of Strong and his working methods.

“We’ve all been in awe of her talent,” Michelle said of her friend. “We have seen him work harder than anyone and wait a long time for other people to recognize him. So when he became so famous, we all celebrated.’

In his hit HBO series Succession, which earned Strong an Emmy, he plays Kendall Roy, the eldest son from the second marriage of media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox).

As her father’s judgment seems to deteriorate and his media conglomerate struggles to keep up, Kendall plans to replace his father as head of the company.

In addition to praising her good friend, Michelle revealed in her Variety profile that she is expecting her third child, and her second with husband Thomas Kail.

“It’s totally joyful,” she told the outlet, adding, “As the years go by, you wonder what will or won’t be in store for you.” It’s exciting to discover that something you want over and over again is available once again.

‘That good fortune is not lost on me or my family.’

The couple secretly tied the knot in March 2020 after getting engaged the previous year.

They met when he served as director on her Fosse/Verdon miniseries, in which she played actress/dancer Gwen Verdon, while Sam Rockwell played her husband, director/actor/dancer Bob Fosse.

The couple welcomed their son Hart in the summer of 2020.