Sept. 4, 2007

Have things gone precipitously downhill for "Brokeback Mountain" lovebirds Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams? That's the word from the weeklies, which report the scowl-prone parents of 23-month-old Matilda recently parted ways after going through a rough patch.

An insider tells Us that Heath, 28, and Michelle, 26, who quickly partnered up while filming "Brokeback" in 2004, "quietly and amicably split a few weeks ago."

Over the weekend, a newly brunette Williams was snapped smiling up a storm while perambulating around her New York neighborhood with Matilda, who's a doppelganger for her dad.

Ledger, for his part, managed to put on a relatively happy face for the press while promoting "I'm Not There" at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday.

"The relationship had been rocky recently," the mole tattles to Us. "They tried very hard to make it work but finally decided to separate. They just grew apart."

The whole "they wanted to make a go of it but drifted apart" spin appears to be the party line for the chatty sources.

"It was rocky for a while," echoes a confidante of the paparazzi-averse couple to People. "They did what they could to make it work."

Adds a verbose Ledger snitch to Star, "They're both artists who are always looking to grow and expand and explore. In their journey, they did not grow together, they grew apart. They've been fighting for well over six months. They really tried to make it work. But sometimes two people are better apart."

Also piping in on the rift reports is Michelle's estranged dad, Larry Williams, who is currently based in Australia as he fights extradition to the United States on tax evasion charges.

He unplugs his piehole to the Daily Telegraph, offering his thoughts on the duo during "this hugely difficult time of their lives."

"I know Heath and Michelle still care about each other deeply and are very committed to being great parents to their daughter," says Williams, who concedes he doesn't know "Heath very well at all," hasn't spoken to his daughter about the purported bust-up and has never met Matilda.

Rumblings of trouble began brewing in February, when the New York Daily News claimed the twosome was giving each other the silent treatment.

"They had a huge fight, and they're not speaking," a spy told the paper, which claimed Heath had been seen sans Michelle on Valentine's Day at a Los Angeles hot spot "in the company of a gaggle of other women (although not misbehaving)."

For now, it remains unclear whether Ledger and Williams will have to go through the legal hassle of a divorce.

They've refused to comment on widespread speculation that they surreptitiously tied the knot early this year, even though both have been snapped wearing bands around their all-important fingers.

"We try not to talk about it, to keep it our own kind of thing. It's obviously very sacred," the ornery Aussie actor told Newsweek when asked about the "I do" rumors in April. However, he did hint that "photos of us wearing our wedding rings" would offer a pretty big nuptial clue.

Williams, for her part, has long referred to Ledger as her "husband," and recently gushed to Vogue that their connection was "as strong as love at first sight."

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