The couple at the centre of startling claims by Heath Ledger’s relatives that the actor may have fathered a love child have fiercely denied the rumours.
The woman was reportedly 24 at the time she was rumoured to have had an affair with 17-year-old Heath — then a student at WA’s Guildford Grammar School. She allegedly became pregnant and went on to marry somebody else. She has since remarried a Perth businessman, who’s stepfather to the 11-year-old girl in question.
Last week, Heath’s uncle Haydn Ledger told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper that “there is a very real possibility that Heath was the father”.
But the little girl’s stepfather laughed off the rumours, saying his wife would happily agree to a DNA test to end the gossip.
Change of heart
“You can organise it and we will do it and you can say, ‘There’s your lie’ … It’s quite laughable. How do we even get Heath’s DNA?”
However his wife, who is now pregnant, was not happy for her daughter to undertake a DNA test after all.
Haydn’s comment that Heath may have fathered a love child over a decade ago has further deepened rifts in the Ledger clan.
With Heath’s substantial estate still not finalised, another possible daughter could well mean further delays.
However, Woman’s Day has learnt that the girl’s mother has no wish to formally declare to those administering the will that her child is Heath’s daughter, in keeping with her adamant denials that this is the case.
“The girl’s mum is now married to a wealthy man and there are no financial worries ahead for that little girl — whether she’s the daughter of a movie star or whether she isn’t, it makes no difference!” says a source.
The girl’s mother told The West Australian: “When you are considering an 11-year-old girl who has to go to school and be a part of society, that is my main concern. I’ve just got absolutely her best interests at heart. Always have, always will, as a mother.
Give it to Matilda
Her husband told the paper, “I [asked the mother] and she goes, ‘No, no, no. I do know this — [the girl] is not [Heath’s] daughter’. She would be laughing if she was!
“… as far as we’re concerned, Matilda should get all of it … Matilda is his daughter, his blood. It should all be hers.”
Our Woman’s Day source adds, “If there was bad blood between the Ledgers over money and wills, things have got so much worse now, with the speculation about this other little girl and what that means to everybody in the family.
For the full story, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale April 7).
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