Gemma Ward: Time With Heath Ledger Was 'Magical'

Gemma Ward’s relationship with Heath Ledger might not be as well-known as Michelle Williams'—but the supermodel was the last to date Ledger before his death, and now she's opening up about their relationship. "I have taken a break from the media spotlight for the past few years and it was something spurred by Heath's death," she tells the Herald Sun. "There was no one like him—and no one will ever be like him. I'm just so grateful I got to meet him and get as close as I did with him.”

The two met in late 2007 and bonded over unspecified struggles they were both having, and she says Ledger wanted to “just be there for each other through these hard times.” They spent Christmas together in Australia, which “was incredible … it was beautiful in Perth and both our families were there and we met each other's families,” she says. “We lived in a magical kind of world where we weren't intruded upon." Ledger died less than a month later, on Jan. 22, 2008.
(More Gemma Ward stories.)