Since the passing of Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams has been very private about her love life, but in a recent Vanity Fair cover story the actress got a little candid and revealed that she and musician Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie, The Microphones) secretly got married.
The private ceremony, which took place in the Adirondacks, was "very sacred and very special," Williams said. "Obviously I've never once 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 be free to herself, and I am finally loved by someone who makes me feel free."
Matilda is the 12-year-old daughter Williams shared with Ledger. Elverum's story is similar, as he, too, was forced to raise a child alone after the loss of a spouse. His wife, musician Geneviève Castrée, passed away in 2016 after being diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, leaving him to raise their 18-month-old daughter as a single parent.
In the interview, the 37-year-old also touched on the topic of equal pay for women in Hollywood. Last year, it was leaked that her All the Money in the World co-star Mark Wahlberg was paid substantially more money than she was during re-shoots. "You feel totally devalued," Williams admitted. "But that also chimes in with pretty much every other experience you've had in your workplace, so you learn to just swallow it," she continued, adding that "a private humiliation became a public turning point."
That turning point benefitted Williams personally. When she was cast in an FX limited series alongside Sam Rockwell, she didn't even have to bring up the subject of pay. "Before I could even ask for it, they said, 'They've offered you what Sam Rockwell is making,'" she recalled. "I cried."
Read the full interview here.
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