The myths surrounding Heath Ledger: custody battle, exhaustion, flu–anything but poly-drug addiction.
“It was the custody battle ‘that really made Heath snap.”
So said actor Heath Ledger’s mentor, Terry Gilliam, in a Vanity Fair interview. Gilliam essentially claimed that the unraveling of a romance with Michelle Williams, resulting in a custody battle over their child, led to Ledger’s fatal overdose.
Yes, stress can lead to relapse or heavier-than-usual drug use by addicts. But any addict can overdose. It’s one of the risks associated with addictive use, especially poly-drug addiction, regardless of levels of stress.
The article also asserted that “chronic insomnia may have led to his death,” along with, according to vocal coach Gerry Grennell, who worked and lived with Ledger during the filming of “The Dark Knight,” “a combination of exhaustion, sleeping medication…and perhaps the aftereffects of the flu.”
Gerry, you lived with this wonderful actor. It’s time to come clean: just how much did you know and when? Did you use with him? Were you co-addicts and co-enablers? As recovering addicts often say, one finger out—and three fingers back. It’s time to look at your contribution, Gerry. And if I sound a bit upset, you betcha—we lost a great actor to a disease for which there were likely dozens if not hundreds of incidents for which close people like you could have intervened, but didn’t.