The most important people in Heath Ledger’s life have come out to speak about him – his family in Western Australia. I assume that they are heading to the US to be with their son, whether he will be buried in the US or Australia, and hopefully they will be able to move around with minimum harassment from media.

Here is their statement, delivered from outside of Heath’s mother’s house.

Ledger’s father Kim Ledger, mother Sally Ledger-Bell and sister Katie Ledger appeared outside Ledger’s mother’s house in Applecross at 10.50am, when Mr Ledger read a short statement to the media.

“We, Heath’s family, confirm the very tragic, untimely and accidental passing of our dearly loved son, brother and doting father of Matilda, who was found in a peaceful sleep in his New York apartment by his housekeeper at 3.30pm (New York Time),” he said.

“We would like to thank our friends and everyone around the world for their kind wishes at this time.

“Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life, but few had the pleasure to truly know him.

“He was a down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving and unselfish individual who was an extreme inspiration to many.

“Please now respect our family’s need to grieve and come to terms with our loss privately.”

News.com.au

Heath also has two half sisters, Olivia and Ashleigh. he and his sister Kate are named after the characters from Wuthering Heights.

Another person to come out and express sadness at Heath’s death is the Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd.

“It was with great sadness that I have learned of the passing of Heath Ledger,” he said.

“It is tragic that we have lost one of our nation’s finest actors in the prime of his life. Heath Ledger’s diverse and challenging roles will be remembered as some of the great performances by an Australian actor.”

Mr Rudd said the nation’s thoughts were with Ledger’s family and close friends, especially his two-year-old daughter Matilda.

news.com.au

Being from Australia originally, my phone and emails have been flooding in all day with people from home asking me if it’s true, like I’m the New York Police Department or something. Right up until his family and the Prime Minister made their statements about his death I had been wondering if it was a prank pulled to promote a film. Which admittedly would be a pretty cruel prank.

Heath’s family are also adamant that he has not committed suicide, and that they had been advised by police that his death was accidental.

I can think of nothing worse than having all of Australia’s entertainment reporters on your front door step – and they’ll ALL be there, there’s not much else to focus on in a small country -while you are trying to cope with a time difference and a foreign legal system. I hope that they have lots of support.

Other prominent Australians who have spoken out about the death include Nicole Kidman, Mel Gibson and Cate Blanchett. Unfortunately for Blanchett she was celebrating her Academy Award nominations for I’m Not There, the Bob Dylan biopic that Heath Ledger also plays Bob in, when she heard the news.

Note by Celebitchy: Here’s the video of Heath’s family’s public statement. In accordance with their wishes, and with common decency, we will post no photos of any of Heath friends and family grieving nor will we publish pictures of the scene or funeral. We may put up photos of average people paying tribute to Heath with flowers and notes.

And here are two photo tributes to Heath, thanks to Darule16:

And libertyangel: