"Heath's family confirm the very tragic, untimely, and accidental passing of our dearly loved son, brother and doting father of Matilda. He was found peacefully asleep in his new york apartment by his housekeeper at 3:30pm US time," he said.

"We would like to thank our friends and everyone around the world for their well wishes and kind thoughts at this time.

"Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life, but few had the pleasure of truly knowing him. He was a down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life loving, unselfish individual who was extremely inspirational to many.

"Please now respect our families need to grieve and come to terms with our loss privately, thank you."