Melissa Etheridge is opening up about using the late David Crosby as her sperm donor. In an article in People magazine in July 2024 about the singer-songwriter's new docuseries, Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken (which is set to premiere on July 9, 2024 on Paramount+), she says that her experience with her guitarist friend "really taught me about generosity." David is the biological father of Melissa's daughter Bailey and late son Beckett.
"The situation was special with my partner at the time because she had been adopted and she wanted her children to know who their biological father was," Melissa said, referring to her ex Julie Cypher. "So we weren't going to go to a sperm bank because she wanted them to know."
"To me, I didn't want someone who wanted to be a father," she continued. "I didn't want all of a sudden my children to have … 'Oh, there's dad.' And who am I? That sort of thing," she further explained.
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Melissa says that David's wife, Jan Dance, suggested him to be their sperm donor, and the singer agreed that he was the "perfect" choice. "They had just had help having their son and they appreciated that. They wanted to pay it forward," she explained. "We're still finding kids from David Crosby out in the world. My daughter's like, 'I have another half-sister.'"
"He did not need to be [a father]. And that's what really made it clear for me, was that he was willing to say, 'Yeah, I was the biological father,'" Melissa said. "And my kids call him bio dad, so he's the biological father, but they didn't need a relationship with him."
David is also the father of his sons James and Django, as well as his daughters Erika and Donovan. Melissa also has 17-year-old twins Johnnie Rose and Steven Miller with her ex, Tammy Lynn Michaels
Melissa's son Beckett Cypher died in 2020 at 21 years old from complications related to his opioid addiction. "When I lost my son, I learned how much my capacity for love was," she shared in a previous interview. "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."
David died in January 2023 at the age of 81, just hours after rehearsing for a show. It was reported that he died in his sleep from complications of COVID-19, which his bandmate Graham Nash revealed he had contracted for the second time.
"I am grieving the loss of my friend, and Bailey's and Beckett's biological father, David," Melissa wrote in an Instagram post at the time. "He gave me the gift of family. I will forever be grateful to him, [son] Django, and [wife] Jan. His music and legacy will inspire many generations to come. A true treasure."
