Melissa Etheridge: Why I didn’t use Brad Pitt as a sperm donor

nypost.com:

came out as a lesbian in 1993 and has been married to “Nurse Jackie” co-creator Linda Wallem since 2014, is a mother of four.

Etheridge had son Beckett and daughter Bailey Jean, 27, with her ex partner, Julie Cypher, and she also had twins Johnnie Rose and Miller Steven, 17, with her ex partner, Tammy Lynn Michaels.

Beckett died at age 21 in 2020 from causes relating to opioid addiction. David Crosby, who died in 2023, was the sperm donor for Beckett and Bailey, while Etheridge’s younger two kids were from an anonymous sperm donor.Crosby had four more children, sons James and Django and daughters Erika and Donovan, from other relationships.Etheridge told People that Crosby’s wife, Jan Dance, who is the mother of his son Django, suggested the sperm donor idea.“They had just had help having their son, and they appreciated that.

They wanted to pay it forward,” said Etheridge.“He did not need to be [a father],” she added about Crosby. “And that’s what really made it clear for me, was that he was willing to say, ‘Yeah, I was the biological father.’ And my kids call him ‘bio dad,’ so he’s the biological father, but they didn’t need a relationship with him.”Etheridge explained that her then-partner, Cypher, who she split from in 2000, was adopted, so Cypher wanted their kids to know who their biological father was. “So we weren’t going to go to a sperm bank, because she wanted them to know.” In a 2000 interview with CBS News, the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young founder said, “Was there any hesitation in my mind about trying to help them?