I’m still recovering from the news about Michelle Williams. I was right, months ago, to think that something fishy happened when Michelle’s marriage to Phil Elverum crashed and burned in less than a year, right as she completed Fosse/Verdon. My thought at the time was that something was up between Michelle and Sam Rockwell, and I based that only on how much chemistry they had with each other in the miniseries. As it turns out, though, Michelle was actually dealing with Thomas Kail, the director of Fosse/Verdon. Incidentally, Kail is a brilliant director – I think both Rockwell and Williams gave career-defining performances in Fosse/Verdon, and that was the most I’d ever liked Michelle in anything.
So, what to do if you’re Michelle Williams with a messy marriage which didn’t last a year, and there’s a sketchy timeline of when you and your new guy started up? What if your new guy also had a partner who got jettisoned at some point in 2019? How do you avoid looking like you had a torrid affair and you both left your spouses for each other? You go to People Magazine, pose for an exclusive photoshoot and announce your pregnancy and engagement. Messy. So messy that even Page Six is calling out People Magazine’s obvious whitewashing of the situation. But it looks like Michelle’s people also went to E! News for a little bit more whitewashing:
Michelle Williams is ending the year on a special note! Earlier this week, pop culture fans were excited to hear that the Hollywood actress was engaged and expecting a child with Hamilton director Thomas Kail. And although the pair is trying to keep their love story on the private side, E! News is learning more about the special bond these two have built as they expand the family.
“She’s very excited to have another baby and give Matilda a sibling,” a source shared with E! News. “She fell fast and hard for Thomas. They are very in love and excited about their future together and having a family.”
And with the 2020 Golden Globes just days away, those close to the actress aren’t surprised that the news is out. “She’s showing and will be attending an event this weekend and figured people would speculate,” an insider shared.
That’s what the Page Six article said too, that Michelle timed the announcement to come before the Golden Globes on Sunday, so that people wouldn’t be shocked when they saw her visibly pregnant (sidenote: I’m looking forward to seeing her maternity gown, quite honestly). As for “She fell fast and hard for Thomas…” Yeah, how hard and fast? Hard enough and fast enough that it ended both of their marriages?
Photos courtesy of WENN, People’s Instagram.
Yeah, I still think Thomas was with Angela and the pregnancy made the decision for them to end things.
When Michelle won the Emmy for her Fosse/Verdon performance, she spoke about receiving equal pay. She said that the producers valued as an artist by listening to her concerns and providing additional time to rehearse. I was so happy to hear her speak this feminist lingo. And now I find out that all the while she has having an affair with the writer, director and producer of Fosse/Verdon, Thomas Kail.
I thought this too – it kind of undermined the whole I felt respected as an artist comment. Your work experience is very different when the man in charge fancies you. Of course you got everything you asked for 🙄.
It’s the same w/Greta Gerwig.
If he did cheat on his wife then he most likely did so without using protection, potentially exposing his wife to STDs. That’s freaking disgusting!
Exactly! Use a condom!
Yes, it’s messy af, but it doesn’t seem pregnancy was the reason for them separating with their partners…
If you do the math, it didn’t happen until AFTER Michelle announced her separation from husband:
Jan 2018 – dating/engaged to Andrew Youmans
Jul 2018 – married Phil Elverum
Nov 2018 – filming starts
Dec 2018 – Thomas Kail last photographed with wife
Jan 2019 – supposedly separated Phil
Feb 2019 – photographed with Thomas Kail
Mar 2019 – filming wraps
April 2019 – announced marriage to Phil was over in Jan
Dec 2019 – announced engagement and pregnancy to Thomas.
I feel exhausted just looking at the timeline!
It appears she’s been in a rush to lock it down, get married and get preggers since 2017.
She rushed into marriage with a grieving man she’d known 6 months who was NEVER going to feel comfortable in her ‘celebrity’ life or New York.
Despite it all, this does seem like a better match and the courtship’s already lasted *almost* as long as she dated/married/divorced the guy before.
Now…I understand that things can get complicated between grown folks…but THIS situation..IS MESSY AF!!!!!!! And I gotta say…considering Michelle, whom I adore as an actor and who I’ve always liked as a human being…I am SHOCKED that she put her daughter in the middle of this mess….Her ex-husband and his children…I mean, they had LITERALLY JUST GOT MARRIED….HOW FRIGGIN’ EMBARRASSING!
“She’s very excited to have another baby and give Matilda a sibling,”
still throwing Matilda under the bus I see.
How is that throwing Matilda under the bus? That’s a pretty standard comment when announcing the impending arrival of a second child. Now, the whole “Matilda the Matchmaker” seemed to be in fairly poor taste and she didn’t need to be added to the alleged-but-probable affair equation, but this is a rather benign statement.
I think it’s more deflection to be like “look, we’re becoming a whole, happy family!” as opposed to “I got accidentally knocked up by this dude who I was having an affair with and we’re making the best of it”, but it uses Matilda in the deflection.
When your kid is fourteen is it really like you need to “give them a sibling”? The kid will be only four when Matilda leaves home for college or career and will pretty much grow up like Matilda did, as an only child. I guess in the really long run, when Michelle dies hopefully of nothing but old age, they will have close relatives in each other. But own up to what it probably is Michelle. At 39 you figure now or maybe never and the old biological clock makes you less cautious than you have been.
Didn’t she also try to paint it as “Matilda set us up” or something like that? That’s really gross.
In general, I haven’t liked how she has treated Matilda for a while now. Tbh looking at photos of Heath Ledger with Matilda, I wonder how Matilda’s life would have turned out if she was raised by him. He looked like a really sweet dad. I also wonder if Matilda will say “Adios!” to Michelle the moment she turns 18. Sometimes, that little girl looks like she’s more Michelle’s guardian or companion than her daughter. It makes me feel bad for her.
So I always feel bad about the partner who stayed with the now famous person through thick and thin and who loses them to a celebrity. That being said, I’m mostly relieved it wasn’t Lin Manuel Miranda she ran off with.
Far be it for me to put LMM on a pedestal, but dude is in a happy marriage and by all accounts, seems to have his priorities straight. I don’t think he’d choose to leave his awesome wife and kids.
Go back and look at Kail’s Tony acceptance speech for HAMILTON. He gushed over his then wife. And then he threw it all away the first time a pretty celeb glanced his way.
I never thought Michelle was pretty. She has perpetual grump face (as you can see in her photo above). When she smiles it’s so awkward looking too. No I’m not a fan. I really didn’t care for her and this news only confirms it.
Or Sam Rockwell. I would have been so disappointed in him.
I know. I love Sam! This whole thing is a mess and they should be called out loud and clear. And I agree on her speech at the Emmys, it now looks very different with her praising her secret cheating lover for giving her everything she asked for. Gross!
I hate when people use the expression “give a sibling” or “give a child.” Babies are people, not accessories or presents.
I hate it even more when people use the phrase to try and tell me that I’m selfish for not having another child… a child i have just told them neither of us want. ‘You can’t leave her an only child… you have to give her a sibling!’ No i do not have to sacrifice my womb and life to ‘give’ my existing child a sibling.
This is all so sleazy.
Extremely sleazy.
Very grubby indeed.
The constant using of her daughter is so gross.
“Fell hard and fast” – just like she did with Phil Elverum, whose love she claimed was unlike anything she’s experienced before. Anyone who lives like this is in need of so much validation in their life it blinds them to their awful decisions and the pain it causes other people in their lives. But it’s “LOVE” so we’re supposed to believe this is all ok. Anyone who falls in love “fast and hard” can fall OUT of love just as quickly. What a mess. Pity any dumb sap who falls for her – just heartbreak waiting to happen.
Agree….the wording is so weird. She has one image as this very serious, classy, private actor, but her romantic life would suggest she’s always been searching for something to fill the void.
Would love it if his wife came out and said when exactly they spilt up as there are pictures of Michelle and Kail in February of this year walking together in New York. But I’m sure Michelle used some of her money to get the wife to not blab to the press. If he and his wife did really spilt up before he got together with Michelle why not announce not that anyone would care but at least cover your back if you know your going to be dating a respected actress? Seems to be like they had an affair and she fell pregnant and now they are doing what they think is the “right” thing (eyeroll). Glad the media is finally catching on to her wicked ways. This is not the first married man she’s went after and it won’t be the last. Poor Matilda, her mother had been engaged 3 times in the last 3 years, I hope she doesn’t develop issues because of her mothers fickleness.
Caitlin- engaged 3 times? Elverum, Kail… who’s the third?
Andrew Youmans. She was photographed wearing a heart shaped diamond ring on a couple of occasions, it was never confirmed though.
https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/michelle-williams-is-engaged-to-andrew-youmans/
If it was true, she’s actually been engaged three times in two years.
Andrew Youmans. She was visibly showing of the ring to paparazzi when they were on holiday and Matilda was with them.
There is no wife. Thomas Kail was never married to his ex.
Yes he was, they married in 2006.
In any case, that is splitting hairs. They were in a long term, supposedly committed relationship. And this all sounds like a great big mess.
She better off without him, tho, if he goes around like that.
So says wiki where her people or his people scrubbed all the evidence away.
I love the term “fell pregnant.”
Seriously, so many people across the globe are denied access to birth control, and this married wealthy American actress and married wealthy director can’t be bothered? Wtf
I always wonder that about couples (even in real life) that have access to all the birth control methods across the board and yet, here they are, after 3 dates, pregnant. Like what? I’m married and take 8348934723 steps to avoid pregnancy with the person who already fathered two of my kids.
I mean, it’s called Mirena!!! And condoms!
I wonder too if they are only engaged because of the pregnancy. Otherwise, maybe no one needed to know about the affair. Maybe they’d still be married to their previous partners?
Thomas was never married to his ex. Only Michelle had a marriage to leave.
It said he was married on WiKi the hour after the people article came out and now it just says partner. Something fishy going on there. Not that it makes any difference he was in a committed relationship with the woman for a long long time.
At the time her divorce was announced, weren’t people saying Phil was a total sleaze and probably cheated on her? I remember feeling bad for her, like she got tricked by a manipulator.
I’m surprised she agreed to such an obvious staged photo. Laying it on pretty thick for someone who is usually so private. Makes me think she’s definitely trying to get in front of the story and present it her own way.
Phil? A manipulator? He had been married to his first wife for years and she died of tragically of cancer when their child was 18 months old. He was then with Michelle. Whoever said he has a sleazy reputation, has their facts entirely wrong and is skewing things in Michelle’s favor to justify her behavior. This crap has been Michelle’s behavior before Heath Ledger was ever in her life and it’s been her pattern since their breakup and his death. Her “Widow Ledger” reputation and the myth around it is a careful PR construct. I’m sure losing Heath was very painful, and even more so because she’s been raising his daughter without her father for all these years. But she was never his widow and she was not with him for a year before he died. They split up due to cheating, a pattern for both of them, and she was with Ewan McGregor around that time, who was married.
Not related to your comment, but it also leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Michelle introduces her daughter to every flavor of the minute boyfriend she has, allowing her to form attachments to them that are broken when they disappear. That can’t be great for her emotional stability and she may well end up repeating these patterns in her own life. Michelle’s behavior has gone undercover for a long time because she’s not usually the type of actor to open the press up to her personal life, and because she’s rightly lauded as a prestige actress who takes very serious roles. That she’s running to People now in such an obvious way and using her daughter to legitimize this relationship tells me all is not right here. Would love to hear from Phil and Angela Christian but they don’t owe us any explanation and may just want to move on with their lives.
I think Page Six is reading Celebitchy.
To me she has always been plain, and I have never understood her appeal. She is a good actress, and the only gossip thing I know about her is that she has played the “widow” card for I don’t know how long (just like Aniston and the triangle) I am surprised to discover she was married!
Lord knows people forget that Heath was with Naomi Watts when he got with Michelle and then got her pregnant with their child. Seems like a familiar pattern for her. And the men in the situation both scumbags (I loved heath but what he did to Naomi was terrible and even after that she only ever talks about him with the utmost respect). I’m surprised people are only starting to turn on her now. Is she a great actress? Yes! Is she super messy when it comes to her love life? Hell yes. And she lets Matilda bond with these guys super hard check out the pics of Matilda with Andrew Youmans, Phil Elverum, Spike Jonze and supposedly she is super close to this new fiancée so much so that she’s the one that set them up (yeah right)
Honestly it sucks for her kid and Phil’s kid. But Michelle always been kinda messy in her love life. She cheated on Cary Fukunaga, who is literally the sweetest guy. And also had an affair with Ewan. As well as another married producer.
Fukunaga is gorgeous but he has a long string of very young exes that make me side eye him. A 40 year old man should not be lurking around the NYU freshman orientation for dates.
Imma have to disagree. He’s been with significantly young women but nothing creepy about it cause none were teenagers.
Michelle was dating an author from the DC area, who now lives in Brooklyn, he left his wife and two kids for Michelle, they kept it on the down low, wife ended up with the brownstone.
After two years he had enough, said she was too needy.
When was that?
It was Jonathan Safran Foer. But everyone thought it was Natalie Portman because they did a interview together and it read like dude was obsessed with her and he announced his separation from his wife shortly after the interview was released. But then we learned it was Michelle he was involved with.
I think it was that dude. Yeah, I think.
We see what you’re doing Michelle…
Ugh so messy. I feel bad for Matilda, she’s been introduced to a number of Michelle’s boyfriends and I can’t imagine what it’s like for her. I always wonder if Matilda has any kind of relationship with Heath’s family.
The frantic attempts at damage control are certainly…interesting. She’s never been a particularly warm or pleasant celebrity (and she’s not required to be. She always made clear it was about being an “actor” for her) so the sudden apparent terror for her public image is a bit odd!
Michelle has always seemed a little messy in her relationships. I’ve always wondered what happened with her relationship with Jason Segal. His career has pretty much tanked since they broke up in 2013.
Woww, the tea coming out in the comments!! haha. She is shady af. It’s kind of scary how well she’s been able to sell her demeure, vulnerable widow image, meanwhile being part of destroying several marriages and relationships. Yikes.
Right???? I remember most of these relationships but forgot about them. When you lay it all out it is A LOT.
LOL! yes, so messy.
I feel like “I fell head over heals hard and fast” translates to “I am so so very messy and my partners are messy, I spread messiness wherever I go, but please say nice things …”
She does have the “delicate widow finding happiness finally” act down pat.
I get she has a connection to Heath that no one else has because of her child, and I get that there’s no proper amount of time to grieve for someone, but I’ve been kind of turned off of her for milking this for so long — I didn’t think she WAS milking it, till I saw how much she allows Busy Philipps to write about her as Heath’s one true love all the time – not to mention that weird IG post. It’s crass and tasteless, to me.
What I remember most is Heath dating Gemma Ward and introducing her to his family shortly before he died, and I remember her being truly devastated to the point where she seemed to just withdraw completely. Thankfully she seems happily partnered and doing ok now.
Yeah i remember in 2018 on the 10th anniversary of Heath’s death, Michelle & Busy did some weird staged photo shoot showing them crying & grieving over Heath and put it on Instagram, and i found it so weird, corny, fake, and tasteless. That showed me how Michelle uses the “Ledger Widow who’s still grieving the love of her life” act for PR purposes and showed that she is very calculating with her public image. It left a bad taste in my mouth.
And now this big mess, and using Matilda for PR, is beyond gross. I really hate how she used Matilda in this situation, saying Matilda was their matchmaker.—So that the public will think: “Well obviously Thomas and Michelle were both already single, since Matilda set them up together which she wouldn’t do unless they were both already single (which they weren’t), and plus he must be a great guy since Matilda likes him, and now poor ‘widowed’ single mother Michelle finally gets a great guy to be her husband and Matilda finally gets a stepfather who she really likes a lot!”—when meanwhile it’s all really just a big pile of sleazy bullshit.
Also hate how poor Phil Elverum (her HUSBAND until just recently and who she was gushing about saying how deep & special their love was), has completely just been written out of the equation, like he never even existed! The man uprooted his toddler daughter (who tragically had lost her mother to cancer) and moved from Washington State to Brooklyn to have a life with Michelle, but he’s been kicked to the curb and erased.
Michelle is not the person i thought she was, AT ALL.
That IG post on the anniversary of Heath’s death was so strange. It looked like a private moment – except someone was ready with a camera. Actual private moments aren’t usually captured on film.
« Thomas Kail »!threw me off as is, I looked at the pics and thought « TOMMY Kail » of Hamilton fame! Lin’s sidekick! Huh…
And they gotta promote In The Heights real soon. This could also explain the rollout. I wonder if someone would be bold enough to ask Thomas about this relationship.
Well, but take a look at this interview with Phil Elverum from Nov 2019 (plus the previous one from not long after his first wife passed away… heartbreaking and beautifully written). Sounds like he never felt happy in NYC. He was from the Pacific Northwest going generations back. And he may have still been grieving hard when he and Michelle got together. Tough all round but this way he has a chance to rebuild while his daughter is still so young. https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/mount-eerie-phil-elverum-lost-wisdom-pt-2-interview/
This is all PR bull, but if she’s going to walk the red carpet with this guy, and she’s going to be showing, it’s going to be the best Golden Globes drama ever. I’m getting my popcorn ready. Cackling.