Heath's ex calls paternity rumors rude

PERTH, Australia, April 3 (UPI) -- An Australian woman Heath Ledger allegedly dated when he was 17 said she resents media speculation that the late film star might have fathered her daughter.

"I'm not answering anything," Britain's Daily Mail newspaper quoted the woman as saying. Her identity has not been disclosed to protect her child.

"I think it's very, very rude that I'm being posed all of this. I really do. I can't talk about anything," she fumed. "You have no proof, there's no background, there's no grounds, there's no nothing."

Ledger died in January at the age of 28.

Since then, his estranged uncle Haydn has spoken to the press -- against the wishes of Ledger's immediate family -- about personal family issues, including his acknowledgment of a persistent rumor Heath fathered the now 11-year-old child.

"We will do a DNA test," the ex-girlfriend's husband said. "I'm the step-dad, but there's nothing to hide. ... The whole thing with (Ledger being the father) is no. No way. No can be. It would probably be a great thing if she was, but no."

The woman was reportedly 25 and married to another man, not her current husband, when she had the affair with Ledger.