Heath Ledger’s uncle gave an interview to US Weekly in which he made it clear that his brother was widely misquoted on the “Heath Ledger love child” story that had everyone talking earlier in the week. Heath’s uncle, Haydn Ledger, was quoted as saying a love child of Heath’s was a “real possibility,” but Heath’s other uncle, Mike, says his brother just gave a noncommittal response like “anything is possible,” not something like “that’s really possible.”

One thing Heath’s other uncle said that made it sound like this could be true though, is that “it’s been a rumor for a long time.”

How did the rumors start?
All my brother Haydn said was that anything is possible, and from there, it just went absolutely berserk. At the end of the day, our thoughts are with the little girl in question, and we’re not prepared to make any more comments at all.

So Haydn said something, and it was taken out of context?
Yes. Haydn was asked a question that wasn’t’t directly related to the Heath issue: ‘If someone was this age, could it be possible?’ and Haydn said ‘Anything is possible,’ and that’s it. His statement was absolutely taken out of context. Absolutely.

So you and Haydn don’t know for a fact if Heath had another child or not?
No. It’s just a rumor! It’s been a rumor for a long while.

Did you and the rest of Heath’s family know about Heath having a girlfriend who was older?
There were rumors. He was a young, good-looking guy, and he attracted lots of women.

[From US Weekly]

The Daily Mail has one of their long suggestive stories about an interview with the unnamed woman who is rumored to have had Heath’s love child after a 1996 affair when he was 17 and she was 25. The woman had a daughter after they broke up. The Daily Mail titles the article “Heath Ledger ‘former lover’ refuses to confirm whether he fathered her 11-year-old,” but the woman didn’t “refuse to confirm” it at all, she said “no” flat out, in a statement at the end.

The woman’s husband, who it sounds like was not around at the time the girl was born as he knows he is not the father, says that they would gladly submit to a DNA test, but Heath’s former lover says that’s out of the question, but that he’s not the father anyway.

Agreeing that he was not the girl’s father, the woman’s husband said: “I’m the step-dad, but there’s nothing to hide…and if I asked (the mother) I’m sure that she wouldn’t mind (to have a DNA test).”

But he wondered how they could even get Heath Ledger’s DNA.

However, his wife refused to have any part of the DNA suggestion.

“I’m not answering anything,” she said. “I think it’s very, very rude that I’m being posed all of this. I really do. I can’t talk about anything…”

“When you are considering an 11-year-old girl who has to go to school and be a part of society, that is my main concern,” she said.

Of the persistent rumours, she said: “You have no proof, there’s no background, there’s no grounds, there’s no nothing.

“I’m not going to answer anything or go into anything at all.” Her husband supported her denials.

“The whole thing with that (Heath being the father) is no. No way. No can be. It would probably be a great thing if she was, but no.”

[From The Daily Mail]

If the Daily Mail didn’t completely make up that interview, and I definitely wouldn’t put it past them, then the mother sounds like she’s completely denying that Heath is the father. Even if he is the father, she doesn’t want to acknowledge that possibility and is not going after any of Heath’s estate, assuming this interview is real. (The Mail is hardly accountable for it given that they don’t give a name or any other details that would explain how they were able to get in touch with her.)

As it is, the only one fueling these “love child” rumors is the media, looking for some more dirt to dig up on a dead guy who died of a prescription drug interaction.