How Matilda Ledger enjoys the same passions as her late dad Heath
New photos of Heath Ledger’s daughter Matilda have revealed that she bears a striking resemblance to her late father, who tragically died in 2008.
However, over the years, people close to Heath’s only child, 17, have claimed that Matilda shares much more than his father’s looks.
The Dark Knight actor has passed away at the age of 28 after taking a fatal cocktail of drugs, leaving behind his two-year-old daughter, Matilda.
Despite only being alive for the first two years of Matilda’s life, her friends have reported that Matilda’s personality and drive closely resembles her father’s.
Matilda: People close to Heath’s only daughter, 17, have claimed that Matilda shares much more than her father’s looks (pictured in New York last year)
A shared love for chess
In March 2012, a source claimed that Matilda had recently sparked an interest in one of Heath’s old hobbies: chess.
“Heath was obsessed with chess, and now Matilda is getting pretty good at it. She even has her father’s old chess board of hers,” the source told New Idea.
The source admitted that Matilda’s mother, Michelle Williams, who was in a relationship with Heath between 2004 and 2007, was interested in her new hobby.
They said: ‘Matilda has the skills to become a Grand Master. michelle [Williams] he thinks this is a great thing and will prevent him from doing anything good.
Heath was a great chess player and won a chess championship in Perth at the age of 10.
At the time of his death, he planned to act in and direct a feature film about a chess prodigy in an adaptation of Walter Tevis’s The Queen’s Gambit (1983).
An ‘inquisitive’ personality
And it seems the uncanny resemblance doesn’t end there, as Heath’s dad Kim previously revealed that Matilda is also carrying on his legacy with her personality.
‘She has a tremendous amount of her mannerisms. She is very curious, she has the energy of her, because Heath never slept since she was two and Matilda is like that,” Kim previously told The Project.
‘I mean, she just has this ball of energy and radiates this little aura. Heath was a bit like that. So he’s really fabulous.
Most striking features
Heath’s family previously commented on the resemblance between their son and daughter Matilda, after she inherited his wavy hair and facial features.
Heath’s mother, Sally, previously said during a joint interview with Kim: “Matilda is very much like her father: she has long limbs and similar features.”
She added: “However, she also possesses her mom’s beauty, one lucky girl.”
Tragic: The Dark Knight actor has passed away at 28 after taking a fatal cocktail of drugs, leaving behind his two-year-old daughter, Matilda (pictured)
australian roots
Heath was born in Australia but moved to the US in 1998 to pursue his dream of acting, where Matilda currently resides in New York with her mother.
Australian magazine Woman’s Day reported in January 2022 that Matilda wants to travel to Perth to visit her late father’s family.
“Michelle is extremely protective of Matilda and has gone to great lengths to protect her from public life, but has gone along with Matilda’s wishes,” a source allegedly told the publication.
She knows how Heath died and how much he loved her. Not to mention how much her family loves her and that she always has a home with them,” the source added.
Strong bond: Heath was born in Australia but moved to the US in 1998 to pursue his dream of acting, where Matilda currently resides in New York with her mother (pictured together)
They share the same ‘aura’
Michelle also said she saw similarities between Heath and her daughter in their caring behaviors shortly after her accidental overdose death in 2008.
She said: “I am the mother of the most tender, lively and beautiful girl who is the spitting image of her father,” she said after his untimely passing.
‘All I can hold on to is his presence within her that reveals itself every day. His family and I see Matilda as she whispers to the trees, hugs the animals, and takes two steps, and we know that he is still with us.
‘She will be raised in the fondest memories of him.’
“Every time I really miss him and wonder where he’s gone, I just look at her,” the Annette actress said in 2009.
Together: Since her father’s death, Michelle has made sure to raise her daughter knowing how much her father loved her (pictured June 2006)
Since her father’s death, Michelle has made sure to raise her daughter knowing how much her father loved her.
Speaking about the love he had for his daughter before her death, Heath told Intouch in December 2005, when his daughter was six weeks old:
‘Matilda is lovely, beautifully observant and wise. Michelle and I love her very much. Being a father exceeds all my expectations. It’s the most remarkable experience I’ve ever had, it’s wonderful.
Michelle and Heath fell in love on the set of the critically acclaimed 2005 drama Brokeback Mountain, but broke up in September 2007, just four months before her death.
Michelle was in a relationship with Heath from 2004 until late 2007. The couple welcomed their only child, Matilda, in October 2005.
Heath died in a New York City apartment on January 22, 2008, following an accidental overdose following months of mental and physical exhaustion.
Reportedly an on-off drug user for years, things came to a head when he was juggling too many movies, including his latest role, The Dark Knight, with too little sleep and began to rely on various prescription cocktails for disconnect your mind
‘I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted and my mind was still working,” he told the New York Times in an interview in November, just two months before he died at the age of 28.
It was discovered that he had taken a lethal combination of six drugs: two types of narcotics, two types of anti-anxiety drugs, and two types of sleeping medications.
Since her death, Michelle has taken Matilda out of the public eye and neither of them have a social media presence.
In the aftermath of Heath’s passing, Michelle moved from New York with Matilda, where Heath had previously been seen regularly.
They moved to upstate New York and bought a country house in an attempt to provide a “healthy home environment” for their little girl.
Love life: Michelle, who is now married to theater director Thomas Kail, previously spoke about wanting to give Matilda siblings in an interview with GQ in 2012
She told the New York Post in June 2016: “We moved, left Brooklyn, and lived in the country for six years because it was an intolerable state of existence.”
Michelle, who is now married to theater director Thomas Kail, previously spoke about wanting to give Matilda siblings in an interview with GQ in 2012.
She said: ‘I really wanted, and really hoped or imagined, that Matilda would have siblings her own age. I wanted that for her. But I couldn’t make that happen.
‘And now that he is 6 years old, that is no longer a possibility. So something that made me impatient, that’s been removed. For some reason, that’s not our luck, or our way.’
However, eight years later, the actress found her happy ending with Thomas and the couple tied the knot in 2020.
Later that same year they had a baby boy and a second child together in 2022.
Other children: They had a baby boy later that year and a second child together in 2022 (pictured last year in Cannes)