Michelle Williams quietly weds musician Phil Elverum
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 7/26/2018, 2:32 p.m.
By Chloe Melas
(CNN) -- Michelle Williams has married singer-songwriter, Phil Elverum.
Williams revealed news of her recent nuptials in Vanity Fair's September issue, in which she described her relationship with Elverum as "very sacred and very special."
The interview was conducted before the couple's private wedding ceremony took place in the Adirondacks -- attended by "a handful of friends and their two daughters," according to Vanity Fair.
Williams, 37, was previously in a three-year relationship with actor Heath Ledger. They had daughter, Matilda, prior to Ledger's tragic death in 2008 from an accidental overdose of prescription medication. He was 28.
"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.' Obviously I've never once in my life talked about a relationship 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."
Elverum has also experienced loss. His late wife, Geneviève Castrée, died in 2016 from pancreatic cancer. Together they had a daughter.
Williams, who has worked to create a boundary of protection for her family's private life, said she decided to open up about her relationship -- and experiences with pay inequity in Hollywood -- on the possibility it could help other women.
"I don't really want to talk about any of it," she is quoted. "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?"
CNN has reached out to Williams' representatives for comment.