Matilda Rose Ledger

October 28, 2005 NYC

Matilda Rose Ledger was born out-of-hospital with midwife attending on October 28, 2005. All went well, Heath was there, & this photo shows a Ledger tradition of welcoming a new family member into the world.

The Ultimate Daddy

After Matilda's birth, Heath decided to become a stay-at-home daddy while Michelle had previous film commitments to be kept. He took care of Matilda, cooked meals, cleaned, saw friends, & worked on various creative projects he could do from home while bonding deeply with his daughter. This attached photo shows the kind of bond the two had formed during the over 1 and 1/2 years Heath spent not working outside the home.

Someone is "Sweet 16" Now...

Matilda was 2 years old when Heath passed. Even as a toddler a child has consciousness of a parent she was attached to suddenly being gone. Maybe even more so because toddlers are so emotional...but memory of it fades with time for so young a child.

Matilda's family was determined she not forget Heath. Her mother Michelle, & her Australian grandparents & other relatives down under constantly spoke of him to her as she grew up...she saw many, many photos, heard many, many stories.

The 2017 documentary "I AM HEATH LEDGER" was made in Matilda's honor, finally, after the family trying to get it made for years, Michelle agreed to the project, saying, "Matilda is getting curious". The film focuses on Heath as he was privately rather than his persona as an actor...something Matilda really needed to see of him, that she could not remember about him.

I believe Heath's soul travels every year on October 28th to wherever Matilda is (usually NYC) to be with her, because he considered that day in 2005 to be the best day in his life.

Heath Ledger's Daughter is Spitting Image of her Father

By BRIDIE PEARSON-JONES FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA, PUBLISHED: 3 January 2023

Heath Ledger's daughter bears a striking resemblance to her father.

Matilda, who was just two when her father died in 2008, has blossomed into the spitting image of Heath in the 15 years since his untimely death.

Now 17, the student, whose mother is actress Michelle Williams, looks just like the 10 Things I Hate About You actor in recent photos, having inherited her dad's wavy, sandy-coloured hair and strong facial features.

And it seems the uncanny resemblance doesn't stop there, as Heath's father Kim previously revealed Matilda is also carrying on his legacy with her personality.

'She's got an enormous number of his mannerisms. She's very inquisitive, she's got his energy, because Heath never slept from when he was two and Matilda's like that,' Kim previously told The Project.

'I mean, she's just got this ball of energy and she radiates this little aura. Heath was kind of like that. So it's fabulous really.'

Last year, the star, who is currently living in New York with her mother, stepdad Thomas Kail and a two-year-old sibling expressed interest in travelling to Australia to meet her father's side of the family.

'Michelle is extremely protective of Matilda and has tried so hard to shelter her from public life, but she has accepted Matilda's wishes,' an insider told Women's Day.

'She knows how Heath died, and how much he loved her. Not to mention how much his family loves her and that she always has a home with them,' the source added.

In March 2012 (sic), an insider claimed Matilda had also recently sparked an interest in one of Heath's old hobbies: chess.

'Heath was obsessed with chess, and now Matilda is getting quite good at it. She even has her dad's old chess board,' the source told New Idea.

'Matilda has the skills to become a Grandmaster. Michelle [Williams] thinks this is a great thing and will prevent her from getting up to no good.'

In 2019, Michelle gave fans an update on her life raising Matilda as a single mother, on what would have been Heath's 40th birthday.

Appearing on Live with Kelly and Ryan, the Dawson's Creek actress described her parenting experience as: 'So far, so good.'

The four-time Oscar-nominee admitted she was bracing herself for Matilda's teenage years, which can be a notoriously difficult time for any young person's life.

'Every morning we wake up and I look to see if the transformation has happened and if it's turned into the next level that I keep hearing about, but so far, we're not there yet,' she said.

Michelle was in a relationship with Heath from 2004 until late 2007. The couple welcomed Matilda, their only child, in October 2005.

Heath died in a New York City apartment on January 22, 2008, after accidentally overdosing following months of physical and mental exhaustion.

Reportedly a drug user on and off for years, things came to a head when he was juggling too many films - including his last role The Dark Knight - on very little sleep and he started relying on various cocktails of prescriptions to shut his mind off.

'I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going,' he told the New York Times in an interview in November - just two months before he died at the age of 28.

He was found to have taken a lethal combination of six drugs: two types of narcotics, two types of anti-anxiety medicine and two types of sleep medicine.