In 2009, Gemma Ward announced that she was quitting modeling. Ward started to drift away from the fashion world after Heath Ledger's 2008 death--there were rumors that they were involved--and in that time had come under fire for gaining weight. One fashion blogger even called her plus-size, which is ridiculous.
But in an interview with the Herald Sun on January 30, Ward opened up about the reasons behind her departure. She admitted that yes, she had had a brief romance with Ledger in late 2007:
"[Heath and I] first met in New York and we were both struggling with things that I won't get into, and we bonded over that... I kind of met him at first and said, 'Listen my mum's living with me right now and I'm kind of going through a hard time and I'm not interested in having a serious relationship with somebody right now' and he was like, 'You know, um, let's just be there for each other through these hard times we're both going through'. And we developed a relationship and we started seeing each other."
They spent Christmas together in Perth--both were from there--with their families, but Ledger passed away less than a month later, on January 22, 2008. Ward was only 20. On her decision to avoid the spotlight following the tragedy, Ward said,
"...it was a reassessment of everything and I've made a commitment to myself to address some things that were coming up to do with Heath's passing and also things that were troubling me before we met. So it was a retreat from many things in my life and I did think it was important for me to focus on those things... I didn't know how long it would take. I didn't know if it would solve anything, but I set out to focus inside myself."
The break must have been beneficial for her, because 2011 will see Ward returning both to modeling and acting. (She was one of the killers, Dollface, in 2008's The Strangers.) First Ward will star in the Perth Theatre Company's production of The Ugly One, with an opening night of March 22. Then on May 20, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides comes to theaters. Ward plays Tamara, queen of the mermaids.
[via Jezebel]
[Herald Sun]
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