Michelle Williams secretly marries musician Phil Elverum

Michelle Williams has secretly married Phil Elverum. Photo / AP

Michelle Williams has shocked Hollywood by revealing that she is now a married woman, saying she "never gave up on love" after losing Heath Ledger.

The actress, 37, told Vanity Fair that she married Phil Elverum of the indie rock groups The Microphones and Mount Eerie, in the Adirondacks in New York.

Williams' 12-year-old daughter, Matilda, who she had with Ledger, and Elverum's 3-year-old daughter were present.

She called her bond with Elverum "very sacred and very special".

"I never gave up on love. I always say to Matilda, 'Your dad loved me before anybody thought I was talented, or pretty, or had nice clothes'," she said.

"Obviously I've never once in my life talked about a relationship," she said. "But Phil isn't anyone else. And that's worth something. "Ultimately the way he loves me is the way I want to live my life on the whole. I work to be free inside of the moment. I parent to let Matilda feel free to be herself, and I am finally loved by someone who makes me feel free.," she said.

Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams on the red carpet in 2006. Photo / Getty Images

Williams said she was speaking out but said maybe her experience would help others who are struggling to find love after losing a partner.

"I don't really want to talk about any of it," she said. "But there's that tease, that lure, that's like, 'What if this helps somebody? What if somebody who has always journeyed in this way, who has struggled as much as I struggled, and looked as much as I looked, finds something that helps them?'

"Don't settle. Don't settle for something that feels like a prison, or is hard, or hurts you. If it doesn't feel like love, it's not love," she said.

Elverum has also suffered the loss of a partner. He was married to Canadian musician Geneviève Castrée for 13 years. Four months after they had their daughter she was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer and died 13 months later.