Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger's Relationship Timeline: A Look Back

Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger's love story was one of happiness, heartbreak, and tragedy. The actors met in 2004 while filming the Oscar-winning drama Brokeback Mountain. Their co-stars, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, recalled the pair having an instant connection. 

"I remember being in rehearsal, and the two of them had googly eyes with each other," Gyllenhaal reportedly said, per E! Online, with Hathaway adding, "There were sparks immediately. It was adorable." 

Ledger and Williams proved their on-screen chemistry translated to the real world when they started dating off-screen and welcomed their first child together in 2005. However, by 2007, the Dawson's Creek alum and Ledger called it quits, just months before he died at 28 from an accidental overdose on January 22, 2008, reported People. Ledger's legacy has lived on, as he was honored posthumously with an Oscar in 2009 for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Amid her grief, Williams has continued to build a life as an actress, mother, and wife, marrying her Fosse/Verdon castmate Thomas Kail in 2020. In addition to Williams's daughter with Ledger, she and Kail share two children. 

Here's a look back at Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger's relationship.

2004: Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger first meet

Ledger and Williams met on the set of Brokeback Mountain when they were 25 and 23, respectively. Ledger plays closeted gay ranch hand Ennis Del Mar, and Williams was cast opposite the late actor as his wife and longtime love, Alma. 

It was a case of love at first sight for Ledger and Williams — partly due to an on-set sledding accident. 

"The first day we filmed that scene where Michelle's character is on the toboggan and falls off the sled, and Ennis [Ledger's character] is with her — they're laughing; well on the third take, Michelle fell off the sled, and at the bottom of the hill she was crying," screenwriter Diana Ossana told Out magazine in 2015. 

Ossana continued, "She'd twisted her knee, and we had to call someone to take her to the hospital. Heath was not about to let her go alone, and as he was getting into the vehicle with her, he was smoothing her hair back."

"I remember him looking at her, and she looking up at him with these wide eyes," Ossana added, "She was almost startled by the attention he was giving her, but you could see it every day from thereon. For him it was truly love at first sight. He was so taken with her."

December 2004: Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger are first spotted together

The couple was seen out for a stroll in Ledger's native Australia in late 2004. In the new year, they hung out at Bondi Beach in Sydney, sipping some beers, overlooking the cliffs, and cozying up. 

October 28, 2005: Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger welcome a child together

Within months of meeting, the two were engaged and expecting their first child. Just days before the film's release date, Williams and Ledger's daughter, Matilda Rose, arrived in New York City in October 2005, per People.

Looking back at the fast pace of their relationship, Williams told GQ in 2012, "Our initial meeting, the circumstances of how we first met, were cosmic or something. Yeah, a lot of things happened at once. It's a bit like, we had a lot of things to do because we didn't have a lot of time, or something."

Late 2005: Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger move from Hollywood to Brooklyn

Despite being major movie stars, Ledger and Williams were really just hipster sweethearts at the end of the day. Case in point: After welcoming their daughter Matilda, the new parents traded in Hollywood for a brownstone in Boerum Hill — inadvertently making Brooklyn cool. 

As with any other couple in the borough, Ledger was frequently spotted riding his skateboard in the neighborhood, while Williams immersed herself in the local community as a board member for an anti-development group. 

"It's the closest we've ever come to feeling like we can lead a normal life," Ledger told New York magazine about living in Brooklyn. "We’ve localized ourselves. I don't think there's another place on earth I'd rather be right now. We're very happy."

March 5, 2006: Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger attend the Oscars

At the 2006 Academy Awards, the power couple were nominated for their roles in Brokeback Mountain — and, who could forget Williams's iconic canary yellow Vera Wang dress?

September 2007: Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger break up

After three years together, Ledger and Williams split in September 2007. At the time, little details were given as to why they went their separate ways, but following Ledger's death in January 2008, it was believed that his drug use was a contributing factor.

"Well, certainly Heath Ledger was a partier," said former People deputy editor in chief JD Heyman, according to TODAY. "He liked to go out, he was a known user of drugs, he used cocaine. He had a lifestyle that really wasn't — at least in Michelle Williams's eyes — compatible with raising a child and continuing in that relationship. Even though their relationship did not work out, she did love Heath — she loved him very much."

Williams's best friend, Busy Philipps, also shed light on their "complicated" relationship in her 2018 memoir This Will Only Hurt a Little. 

"[Heath] and Michelle were in the process of separating at this point," Philipps wrote, per People, referencing her 2007 surprise wedding to Marc Silverstein. 

Philipps added, "I felt sad for both of them, but weirdly, like something would be figured out, and it wasn't the end of the story for them. They were so young, and that baby was the light of both of their lives. They were just working all the time, and it was complicated. S—t is always complicated. Especially when you're 28. And movie stars. With a baby."