Melissa Etheridge: Why I didn’t use Brad Pitt as a sperm donor
Ain’t it heavy.
Musician Melissa Etheridge has revealed the real reason why Brat Pitt wasn’t the sperm donor for her kids.
“He was a friend of mine a long time ago. People would say, who is Brad Pitt to you? And I’d say, ‘Well, he’s the father of my children’ or something. I would joke around,” Etheridge, 63, told The Post while promoting her new documentary “Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken,” (out today on Paramount+).
“When Brad Pitt was younger, it was always clear that he wanted children. He loved children. He would come over and actually play with my kids,” the “Ain’t It Heavy” singer added.
The Grammy winner, who 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? No. None. The truth is, I probably shouldn’t say this, but I don’t even think it should be a big deal. I think it’s such a natural thing that a straight couple would do for a gay couple, if they were friends.”
However, there was a possibility that Etheridge and her then-partner would have used Pitt instead of Crosby.
But Etheridge ruled him out because the “Fight Club” star seemed to want kids too much, she said.
“I just knew I didn’t want someone to be a donor that wanted to be a father, because they would want to be in their lives — I wanted to be the other parent, you know?” Etheridge told The Post.
“And it so it just didn’t work out,” Etheridge added about Pitt.
She joked that her kids used to indignantly ask why it couldn’t have been Pitt.
“And I’m like, ‘You wouldn’t have been you. What are you talking about?” Etheridge quipped.
Pitt, who was married to Jennifer Aniston from 2000 to 2005, now shares six kids with ex-wife Angelina Jolie: Maddox, 22, Zahara, 19, Pax, 20, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 15. The exes have been in a years-long battle over their divorce, custody of their kids, and their winery, Chateau Miraval, since filing for divorce in 2016. More recently, Shiloh dropped “Pitt” from her last name. Per People, the actor is “aware and upset” over the change.
“The reminders that he’s lost his children, is of course not easy for Brad. He loves his children and misses them. It’s very sad,” the insider told the outlet, as a second source noted: “He still loves all of his kids tremendously. This whole process has been very hard for the whole family.”
“Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken” premieres Tuesday, July 9, on Paramount+.
