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"Please respect our need to grieve privately," Williams says in the statement released by her rep Friday. "My heart is broken."
Adds Williams, mother of Ledger's 2-year-old daughter Matilda: "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."
Heath Ledger: Life in Photos: See all the actor's most recent photos – from life as a dad to being an Oscar nominee
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JOSH & FERGIE: ROCKED BY SCANDAL
Did he cheat with a stripper?
Married less than a year, the couple denies an Atlanta woman’s claims that she and Josh had a fling
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