Melissa Etheridge Says She Won’t Feel ‘Shame’ Over Son’s Fatal Overdose At 21
Melissa said her son Beckett, who died battling an opioid abuse disorder in 2020, wouldn’t want her to ‘stop and ruin’ her life ‘because of his choices.’
Melissa Etheridge revealed how she is currently coping with her son Beckett’s death from an overdose at the age of 21 in 2020. At the opening of her off-Broadway show, My Window, on Oct. 13, the legendary musician said she has been able to come to a place where refuses to feel “guilt” or “shame” about Beckett’s passing and his struggle with opioid abuse disorder by “having a deep spiritual belief that we all make our own choices,” per Page Six.
“We can all choose every day, whether it’s love or fear, and my son made his choices and I did the best I could as a mom and I’m not going to take any guilt or shame,” Melissa explained. “He wouldn’t want me to stop and ruin my life because of his choices.”
The new outlook comes after the “Come to My Window” singer previously said she was struggling with guilt three months after Beckett’s death. “There will always be that that place in my heart and my soul that that has a little bit of, ‘Oh, what could what could I have done? And is it my fault he ended this way?’ and all that sort of thing,” she told Rolling Stone in August 2020. “And it just gets smaller and smaller, because it doesn’t serve me anymore, and where he is now, he certainly doesn’t want me to take that on.” she told the outlet, adding, “So, you know, if that can help any parents who might be torturing themselves with that … I believe life is meant to be lived with as much joy as we can.”
Melissa shared Beckett with her ex Julie Cypher. The former pair also share his older sister Bailey. Both Beckett and Bailey are the biological children of Melissa’s close friend and famous musician David Crosby. The siblings were welcomed via artificial insemination. Melissa is also mother to 15-year-old twins, son Miller and daughter Johnnie, with ex Tammy Lynn Michaels. Currently, Melissa is married to producer Linda Wallem, who she wed in 2014.