Melissa Etheridge Opens up About Losing Her 21-Year-Old Son to Opioids

More than three years after his tragic death, Melissa Etheridge has opened up about losing her 21-year-old son, Beckett Cypher, to opioids. Speaking to Today show host Hoda Kotb on the Making Space podcast, the iconic singer-songwriter said that she often misses her eldest son most when “first waking up.” She added, “You know, the times I used to always text with him and talk with him. And so, it’s like he’s there. I’m like, ‘OK, good morning, you know, watch out for me all day.’”

Beckett Cypher in May 2020 from causes related to opioid addiction. IN her first comments after his death, Etheridge write in a statement, “Today I joined the hundreds of thousands of families who have lost loved ones to opioid addiction. My son Beckett, who was just 21, struggled to overcome his addiction and finally succumbed to it today. He will be missed by those who loved him, his family and friends.” She went on to add, “My heart is broken. I am grateful for those who have reached out with condolences and I feel their love and sincere grief.” Etheridge concluded her statement, “We struggle with what else we could have done to save him and in the end we know he is out of pain now. I will sing again, soon. It has always healed me.”

In her new conversation with Kotb, the singer said, “When I lost my son, I learned how much my capacity for love was. Not only loving him and missing him and 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.”

Etheridge also said that coping with the loss of her son has been “a practice,” explaining, “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?’ 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.”

“When I’m in a dark space, I’m away from all of my loved ones,” she added. “It’s my job to find my space again, of loving myself, going, ‘No, no, I did the best I could. And he made his choices.’ And there are some that check out, and there are some that leave earlier than others. And he could not handle his life at this time.”