Heath Ledger may have fathered a child at 17

LOS ANGELES — Did Heath Ledger father a love child as a teen? That’s the question fans are asking after the late actor’s uncle spoke to the Australian press.

Heath Ledger’s uncle, Haydn Ledger, told Australia’s News Ltd newspapers there was a "real possibility" that late actor fathered a child at 17 with an older woman.

The paper reports that the woman is believed to have learned she was pregnant after her affair with a teenage Ledger ended.

A family source told the newspaper group over the weekend, "She had the baby. Everyone lived under the assumption that she was the daughter of the mother’s boyfriend and that is how she has been brought up."

The actor’s father, Kim Ledger, and mother, Sally Bell, refused to comment to the publication yesterday.

Slideshow: Celebrity Sightings The Sydney Morning Herald reached the woman Ledger is believed to have had an affair with. She pleaded for privacy and claimed her daughter, 11, could be "incredibly hurt," if she were to be identified.

The child’s stepfather suggested a DNA test to ease press attention according to one Australian report, but the woman refused one when contacted by the Sydney Morning Herald.

The request was "very, very rude," the mother said.

Although from their comments it appeared there was little interest in Ledger’s estate, there has been controversy. The actor’s uncles, Haydn and Mike, have claimed in the Australian press that Kim mismanaged their grandfather’s estate following his death.

"He was the executor of our grandfather's estate and left it in total tatters," Mike Ledger told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Kim Ledger is one of several family beneficiaries of the actor’s estate, which the paper reports may be worth up to $10 million. In the April 2003 will however, drawn up before the birth of Ledger’s daughter Matilda, only $145,000 in assets were listed.

Kim Ledger has said Matilda will be looked after.