Michelle Williams Reminisces on 'Brokeback Mountain' Before What Would Have Been Heath Ledger's 46th Birthday

Michelle Williams was feeling a little sentimental ahead of what would have been her late ex Heath Ledger's 46th birthday.

The Dying for Sex actress visited Andy Cohen on Bravo'sWatch What Happens Live on Thursday, April 3 to promote her new FX limited series, and the host asked about the "profound impact" of the film where she met and fell in love with Ledger.

"Yes," Williams said when asked if she realized how much the film would mean to the audience. "Because people were so open about it. I just remember doing the junket and you don't really get an opportunity to see a lot of grown men cry. That was the moment that I think we all knew that it was going to be special to people."

The experience was also special to her because it was where she met the man who would become the father of her first child. Williams and Ledger began dating while filming the movie in 2004. Their daughter, Matilda Rose Ledger, was born on Oct. 28, 2005, and her parents' Brokeback Mountain costar, Jake Gyllenhaal, was asked to be her godfather.

Though Williams' father confirmed the couple's split in September 2007, she was still devasted when Ledger died of an accidental prescription drug overdose in January 2008.

"I feel like I’m a believer in not fighting circumstances, accepting where you are and where you’ve been," Williams shared in the November 2016 issue of Porter magazine. "In pretty much all senses but one, I would be able to go totally down that line of thinking were it not for Matilda not having her dad. You know, that’s just something that doesn’t… I mean, it just won’t ever be right.”

Ledger would have turned 46 on April 4, 2025, if he were alive today. Sadly he died at just 28 years old, when Matilda was only 2 1/2.

Williams looks back fondly on their experience filming together, and was in good spirits talking about it on WWHL — even joking that Brokeback Mountain should have beaten Crash for Best Picture at the 2006 Oscars. "I mean, what was Crash?" she teased.

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