The 37-year-old actress told Vanity Fair that she married indie rocker Phil Elverum in the Adirondacks in New York and described their bond as “very sacred and very special”
Michelle’s 12-year-old daughter, Matilda, who she shared with Heath Ledger, as well as Elverum’s three-year-old daughter were both present at the nuptials.
Elverum was previously married to Canadian musician Geneviève Castrée for 13 years however she died from pancreatic cancer in 2016.
“I never gave up on love. I always say to Matilda, ‘Your dad loved me before anybody thought I was talented, or pretty, or had nice clothes’,” Michelle, who stars on the latest cover of Vanity Fair, revealed.
“Obviously I’ve never once in my life talked about a relationship,” she said. “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 feel free to be herself, and I am finally loved by someone who makes me feel free,” she said.
The actress, who usually tries to keep her private life out of the spotlight, says she wanted to speak out to give hope to others who are struggling to find love after losing a partner.
“I don’t really want to talk about any of it,’ she said. ‘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?’
“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,” she said.
