The lesson Michelle Williams is passing onto her daughter from Heath Ledger is something we all need to learn

She 'never gave up on love'.

When you find people who unconditionally love and accept you for who you are, they leave a handprint on your heart that time, distance and even death can’t erase. For Michelle Williams, one of those people was Heath Ledger and it’s a difficult lesson that she’s continued to try and pass down to their daughter.

In an honest and mostly heartbreaking interview with Vanity Fair, Michelle Williams revealed that she had experienced a kind of ‘radical acceptance’ from her former husband. In the years that followed Heath Ledger's death and as she raised their daughter Matilda Rose Ledger on her own, Michelle made sure her daughter understood just how special that was.

She said, ‘I always say to Matilda, ‘Your dad loved me before anybody thought I was talented, or pretty, or had nice clothes.’’

Even though Michelle revealed she ‘never gave up on love’, she spent the next ten years looking for something that came close to scratching the same surface. And thankfully, the Brokeback Mountain actress has since found it with singer-songwriter Phil Elverum - who she just married in a secret ceremony. She revealed that her relationship with Phil, whose previous partner passed away of cancer, was ‘very sacred and special’.

She said, ‘Obviously I’ve never once in my life talked about a relationship, but Phil isn’t anyone else. And that’s worth something. Ultimately the way he loves me is the way I want to live my life on the whole. I work to be free inside of the moment. I parent to let Matilda feel free to be herself, and I am finally loved by someone who makes me feel free.’

After everything that Michelle and her family have been through, we’re so thankful she’s finally found freedom and love ten years on from Heath’s death. Everybody deserves to be loved the same way Michelle has generously shared she has been: fully, unapologetically and by somebody who will help carry your baggage over the threshold.