The two married in a small ceremony in the Adirondacks
Famously private actress Michelle Williams revealed in a new interview that she secretly wedded indie singer-songwriter Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie and formerly of the Microphones. The two married in a small ceremony in the Adirondacks, she told Vanity Fair.
Williams spoke to the magazine ahead of the secret wedding, with the magazine teasing, « By the time you read this, she and her partner, singer-songwriter Phil Elverum, whom she met through a mutual friend, will have been married in a secret ceremony in the Adirondacks, witnessed by only a handful of friends and their two daughters. »
She and Elverum share something in common: both are single parents with former partners who passed away. Williams’ ex, « Brokeback Mountain » co-star Heath Ledger, died in January 2008 at age 28. The cause of his death was linked to various prescription medications. Williams and Ledger had a daughter, Matilda, in 2005 and split in 2007. Elverum’s late wife, illustrator and musician Geneviève Castrée, was diagnosed with inoperable stage-4 pancreatic cancer in 2015, just four months after they welcomed a daughter. She died 13 months later in July 2016, when their daughter was just 18 months old.
Williams told Vanity Fair that her relationship with Elverum is « very sacred and very special. » In July, Elverum and his 3-year-old daughter moved from Anacortes, Washington, to Brooklyn to live with Williams and her daughter, who is now 12.
« I never gave up on love, » Williams said in the revealing interview. « I always say to Matilda, ‘Your dad loved me before anybody thought I was talented, or pretty, or had nice clothes.' »
She also admitted that she has been very private about her romances in the past, but said, « 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. »
The actress said that though she is very private, she decided to come forward with her love story in hopes of inspiring other women.
« I don’t really want to talk about any of it, » she explained. « But there’s that tease, that lure, that’s like, What if this helps somebody? What if somebody who has always journeyed in this way, who has struggled as much as I struggled, and looked as much as I looked, finds something that helps them? »
The actress, who shuns social media, said, « Don’t settle. Don’t settle for something that feels like a prison, or is hard, or hurts you. If it doesn’t feel like love, it’s not love. »
