The inside story on how Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams fell in love

Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams dated for three years before splitting in 2007, just five months before his tragic overdose death.

The former couple met on the set of the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, and their romance began when Heath helped Michelle when she injured herself on set.

While filming a scene for the movie, Michelle sprained her knee and was crying out in pain at the bottom of the hill.

Brokeback Mountain screenwriter Diana Osana told Out Magazine: ‘She sprained her knee, and we had to get someone to take her to the hospital. Heath wouldn’t let her go alone, and he was slicking her hair back when she got into the vehicle with him.’

‘I remember him looking at her, and she looking at him with these wide eyes. She was almost shocked by the attention he was paying to her, but you could see it every day from there.’

Diana explained: ‘For him it really was love at first sight. He was so taken with her.

Heath and Michelle began dating and less than a year later they announced they were expecting a daughter together.

The couple welcomed their only child, daughter Matilda, in October 2005.

Heath died of an accidental overdose on January 22, 2008, in a New York City apartment following months of physical and mental exhaustion.

Allegedly a drug user who had been repeatedly shutting down over the years, he was juggling too many movies – including his last role in The Dark Knight – on too little sleep, and he tried to shut his mind off. began to rely on a variety of prescription cocktails.

‘I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was tired, and my mind was still running,’ he told The New York Times in an interview in November – just two months before he died aged 28.

It was found that he had taken a lethal combination of six drugs: two types of narcotics, two types of anti-anxiety medication and two types of sleep medication.