Michelle Williams Is Expecting Her Third Child This Fall

On the cover of the current issue of Variety, four-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams appears very much the radiant movie star. While it may or may not be contributing to her rosy glow, she is also pregnant with her third child, due sometime this fall.

Williams, 41, is the mother of Matilda, 16, with the late actor Heath Ledger, who died of a drug overdose in 2008. With her husband Thomas Kail, best known as the director of Hamilton, she is also a parent to a son, Hart, who the couple welcomed in 2020 during the lockdown.

Of the timing of Hart’s birth, she told Variety, “It was a reminder that life goes on.”

Williams continued, “The world we brought a baby into is not the world we thought we were bringing a baby into, but the baby is ignorant of that. He experiences the unmitigated joy of discovery and the happiness of a loving home.”

This current pregnancy, she said, offers another opportunity to delight in what life has to offer, and to be grateful.

“It’s totally joyous,” Williams told Variety. “As the years go on, you sort of wonder what they might hold for you or not hold for you. It’s exciting to discover that something you want again and again, is available one more time. That good fortune is not lost on me or my family.”

“The most ecstatic moments of life and art are the transcendent ones,” Williams said. “Having children is like that. You combine your DNA with someone else to create a new life.”

While she does plan to return to making films, pregnancy has put her acting on hold temporarily. Expressing what anyone who has ever been pregnant while parenting a toddler knows to be true, Williams told Variety, “I got nothing.”

“I wondered if I could work while I was pregnant, but I’m too tired,” she said.

Williams says that being a parent has made her think differently about the future, and has drawn her to advocate for causes, such as pay equity, that she feels strongly about.

“There’s nothing that makes you committed to a better world than raising a great kid,” she said. “It’s the ultimate creative act.”

As for seeing pictures of her kids? It will likely be rare. The actor famously doesn’t use social media and has no plans to start soon. While the public has gotten a few glimpses of Matilda and hart, the family is a private one.