Gemma Ward opens up about her life with Heath Ledger

Posted by mija on Jan 30, 2011 in News | 0 comments

Reclusive supermodel Gemma Ward will return to the international spotlight this year when she makes her theatrical debut in Australia.
And ahead of her return to centre stage, the beauty has also opened up about her brief romance with actor Heath Ledger in the months before he died, reported the Herald Sun.
“I have taken a break from the media spotlight for the past few years and it was something spurred by Heath’s death,” she said. “(Heath and I) first met in New York and we were both struggling with things that I won’t get into, and we bonded over that.
“I kind of met him at first and said, ‘Listen my mum’s living with me right now and I’m kind of going through a hard time and I’m not interested in having a serious relationship with somebody right now’ and he was like, ‘You know, um, let’s just be there for each other through these hard times we’re both going through’. And we developed a relationship and we started seeing each other.”
That was back in November 2007 and Gemma had just turned 20.
The two then spent Christmas together in Perth before heading back to New York where Ledger died less than a month later on January 22, 2008.
“There was no one like him – and no one will ever be like him,” she said. “I’m just so grateful I got to meet him and get as close as I did with him.
“The time we spent in Perth was incredible because we were both from Perth and it was also a time when it was beautiful in Perth and both our families were there and we met each other’s families.
“We were able to not be in any kind of a spotlight and not have to be meeting with people or be hounded by press or anything. We lived in a magical kind of world where we weren’t intruded upon.”
Ledger’s devotion to his toddler daughter Matilda is something Ms Ward will always remember.
“He was a devoted, devoted father,” she said. “And I will never forget seeing him with Matilda and the way she looked at him and the way they were together – it was his whole life. She was his whole life and he loved her so much.”
The Perth Theatre Company has secured Ms Ward to play a starring role in their debut play – The Ugly One – at WA’s new State Theatre Complex.
The 23-year-old will base herself in Australia and rehearse with the rest of the cast in Perth from February 14 in preparation for opening night on March 22.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald Sun, she admitted being on stage was something she had “dreamed of”.
“Oh, I’m so excited,” she said from New York. “I’ve just been jumping out of my skin. I’m definitely nervous, but excitement is overriding everything right now.”
As well as announcing her international stage debut, Ms Ward also talked about her role in the coming Pirates of the Caribbean movie with Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush.
Ms Ward will be in Australia for three months for The Ugly One, and after that she’ll continue acting and her modelling career.
“Yes, of course (I can do both),” she said. “It is interesting because as a model you do play a certain role and you know as an actor you play another role. I am very, very devoted to things that I’m passionate about. I think in terms of me shying away from modelling, I would like to clarify in some way that I was taking a break from many things in my life and obviously what people in the public see is that I’m pulling away from what is more public.
“But in the full capacity of my life, it was a reassessment of everything and I’ve made a commitment to myself to address some things that were coming up to do with Heath’s passing and also things that were troubling me before we met. So it was a retreat from many things in my life and I did think it was important for me to focus on those things.
“I didn’t know how long it would take. I didn’t know if it would solve anything, but I set out to focus inside myself.”
Her next big-screen performance is Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, to be released in Australia on May 19. She plays Tamara, Queen of the Mermaids.
“Lots of models have played mermaids throughout history and it is, kind of, a funny rite of passage (from modelling to acting),” she said. “Anyway, I’ve loved the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. They’re a lot of fun and I was very excited to hear that Rob Marshall was directing it and there’d be Johnny (Depp) and Penelope Cruz, both of whom I’m a big fan.”
Read more: news.com.au