Michelle Williams on Heath: "My heart is broken..."

A grieving Michelle Williams has broken her silence about the death of Heath Ledger, the father of her 2-year-old daughter, Matilda. Michelle and Heath fell in love while making "Brokeback Mountain" but had quietly broken up last year.

"My heart is broken," she said in a statement to the Associated Press.

She added: "I am the mother of the most tender-hearted, high-spirited, beautiful little girl who is the spitting image of her father. All that I can cling to is his presence inside her that reveals itself every day....His family and I watch Matilda as she whispers to trees, hugs animals, and takes steps two at a time, and we know that he is with us still. She will be brought up in the best memories of him."

Michelle also asked for what seems to be impossible in this tabloid-fever environment: "Please respect our need to grieve privately."