How romantic is this? Michelle Williams secretly got hitched, and even though we didn’t see it coming at all, we’re very happy for her.
On Thursday, July 26th, Williams revealed the news in a Vanity Fair profile: After secretly dating, she had discretely gotten married to indie musician Phil Elverum (best know for his bands The Microphones and Mount Eerie). The two had a secret ceremony in the Adirondacks, and only a few family members and friends were there to witness the union. Elverum and his daughter now live with Williams and Matilda in their Brooklyn home.
Both Williams and Elverum have daughters from previous marriages: Michelle has 12-year-old Matilda with Heath Ledger and Elverum has a three-year-old daughter from his first marriage.
Williams has always been extremely private about her personal life, so her decision to secretly date someone and then marry them without anyone knowing isn’t exactly shocking. In Vanity Fair, she said, “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.
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Williams and Elverum share a tragic past. Williams famously lost her husband, Ledger, to an accidental overdose years back. Although they had separated by that point, it was still incredibly painful for her. Elverum lost his first wife, illustrator and musician Geneviève Castrée, to cancer only 18 months after their daughter was born.
Although Williams doesn’t want to talk about her own loss, she acknowledged in the profile that it might help someone going through something similar. She said, “I don’t really want to talk about any of it. 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.”
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This isn’t the first time Williams has been linked to a lowkey artist. In 2015, she reportedly dated Everything Is Illuminated novelist Jonathan Safran Foer. While we don’t know what happened between them (nor is it our business to), it looks like her relationship with Elverum is something extremely special, especially if she’s willing to share her love for him with the public.
We hope they’re both very happy together!