The heartfelt way Magda Szubanski remembers Heath Ledger
Comedian and LGBT activist Magda Szubanski has posted a heartfelt tribute to her late friend and worldwide famous actor, Heath Ledger.
In the past, Magda has honoured the late Joker actor in emotional posts to social media and she has proven time and time again she is not one to shy away from remembering Heath.
The pair both went viral in 2006 at the AFI Awards when Magda’s Kath & Kim character ‘Sharon Strzelecki’ met Heath Ledger on the red carpet.
She squealed in excitement from seeing the then 27-year-old and, in a moment no one expected, the actor grabbed ‘Sharon’s’ face and in Magda’s own words “pashed ME!”
The actress hilariously fell to the ground in shock and later presented an award alongside Dannii Minogue to Heath, and joked he had given her a “Heath rash.”
Later, in a 2017 post the beloved Australian comedian took to Instagram to give inside details about their special on-air moment.
“Ah beautiful Heath. This is one of my favourite career moments ever. Heath had no idea I was going to do this,” Magda shared, mentioning the Aussie actor at the time was having a “rough” experience with the Australian media and was “nervous” to be appearing on a red carpet.
“The producers and I planned that, as Sharon, in her role as stage manager for the event, I would surprise Heath with a "Sharon pash". I'd met him a couple of times and he was such a great guy. When the moment came I was so 'in the moment' I naturally did what Sharon would do: I fangirl screamed.
“Heath had NO idea any of this was gonna happen. But being the magical, receptive actor he was, he totally went with the flow and then upped the stakes even further, grabbed Sharon's (my) face and pashed ME!
“Tell ya, he almost turned me.
“Then the next day he rang me and said he'd had so much fun he wanted to be written into @kathandkim as Sharon's stalker. He and I had a chat about it when I was in London. And then he went off to play The Joker. And well...
“Anyway, this is the beautiful, playful, lighter side of The Joker. I'm so honoured I got to share this moment with him. And as my friend Ron just said, had romance blossomed our love child would've been called #Sheath.
“Always in our hearts #heathledger.”
Heath tragically died in an accidental prescription drug overdose in 2008 in New York, at the age of 28.
He shares one daughter, 13-year-old Matilda Ledger, with American actress Michelle Williams.