Melissa Etheridge shares continued grief from loss of son to opioid addiction: 'The shame is too big’
Grammy winner Melissa Etheridge reflected on her late son's devastating death after he died from an opioid addiction. The 62-year-old singer shares her grieving process.
Following the death of Melissa Etheridge’s son, the singer is now looking on the brighter side of things.
"You’ve got the light in the dark and the positive and the negative… the good and the bad. Yet it’s all one thing, and that one thing is love," she said on the "Making Space" podcast.
"When I lost my son, I learned how much my capacity for love was," she continued.
MELISSA ETHERIDGE'S SON BECKETT DEAD AT 21 FROM OPIOID ADDICTION
"Not only loving him and missing him… being OK but loving myself enough not to go into major depression and guilt and shame, which so many families that lose loved ones to opioid addiction, just the shame is too big. It’s huge. So, I had to believe that… there’s an over-surrounding love to everything. Everything is love."
Beckett Cypher was just 21 years old when he died from causes related to an opioid addiction in May 2020. The 62-year-old musician revealed how she's coping with the grieving process years later and taking her son’s loss day by day.
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"There can be days where the shadow comes on me. And I find myself thinking, ‘Oh, what if? What if I had done this? What if I had only done that?’" she added. "And that doesn’t serve me, and it causes me pain. So, my practice is to go, ‘No… he has gone from this physical world… he is part of that larger nonphysical space.'"
MELISSA ETHERIDGE OPENS UP ABOUT LOSING HER SON BECKETT TO OPIOID ADDICTION
The Grammy winner went on to say that she feels her son’s presence in the mornings, especially when she is "first waking up."
As Etheridge navigates the devastating loss, she believes her late father is also watching over her.
MELISSA ETHERIDGE'S DAUGHTER MOURNS BROTHER BECKETT'S DEATH
"I lost my father when I was 30. I’d already been kind of pulling on his energy and asking that. And so, you know, I really feel surrounded. So, I call it talking to my angels," she said, as she referred to her memoir, "Talking to My Angels."
"That’s why the book is titled that because that energy, those lives, those souls that I have known that have been a part of my heart, are still supporting me."
Beckett was one of two children Etheridge shared with ex-partner Julie Cypher. They also share a daughter named Bailey. The pair split in 2000.
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Etheridge also shares twins with actress Tammy Lynn Michaels; they separated in 2010.
The singer has been married to actor Linda Wallem since 2014.