Heath Ledger was ‘different from anyone I’d met’ - Helena Christensen

Devastated Helena Christensen - who is still mourning the loss of her tragic friend Heath Ledger - made one of her first public appearances since the actor's untimely death last month, stepping out for Sunday's Y-3 fashion show in New York City.

The supermodel 39, says she's coping with the loss, thanks, in part, to her 8-year-old son, Mingus.

"Time passes," she said after the show. "It's doesn't make it easier, but you try to do the best you can. When you have a child, they kind of bring you back to the moment in a really comforting way."

Christensen – who was romantically linked to Ledger following his split from fiance Michelle Williams in September 2007, but always insisted they were just friends – had been on her way to visit the actor when his body was discovered in his Downtown Manhattan apartment. "I had just left him a message and heard his voice on the machine," she previously told Women's Wear Daily, adding that she was "beyond sad" at what had happened.

Although she couldn't attend Saturday's memorial service in Los Angeles, Christensen said she'd heard the ceremony – attended by Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Sienna Miller and Ellen DeGeneres – was "beautiful."

"Because I had my son, I couldn't leave," she tells People.com. "But everyone said it was very moving and it was an amazing way to say goodbye to him."

These days, Christensen is focusing on the happy times she shared with Ledger. "I have only good memories of him," she added. "Losing any friend is horrific, but he just has this thing about him – this special, enigmatic thing that I have never met in anyone before. That's what all of his friends are saying. They are totally devastated by losing someone who gave them so much. He gave everyone so much."

'Brokeback Mountain' star Ledger, 28, died in his New York loft apartment last month He was found dead in bed with prescription pills around him.

Toxicology results, expected some time last week, are hoped to give an insight as to what could have caused the star's totally unexpected death.

By Owen Williams, Feb 04 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy