Melissa Etheridge has opened up about opting not to use Brad Pitt as a sperm donor for her children.
The Grammy winner spoke with The New York Post about the situation, saying, “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.”
She continued, “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.”
But that fatherly instinct was actually the reason she says she decided not to go with Pitt.
Melissa Etheridge says she considered Brad Pitt as a possible sperm donor for her children. (Getty Images)
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“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?” she told the outlet. “And so it just didn’t work out.”
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Pitt.
Etheridge came out as a lesbian in 1993 and has been married to Linda Wallem since 2014.
The “Come to My Window” singer is a mother of four, and welcomed her first two children, son Beckett and daughter Bailey Jean, with her ex-partner Julie Cypher.
Etheridge in 2011 with her two eldest children, daughter Bailey Jean and son Beckett, and her mother Edna, at the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images)
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Their father is Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young musician David Crosby, who passed away in 2023.
In a 2000 interview with CBS, Crosby said he was happy to help Etheridge and her then partner Cypher.
“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,” he told the outlet.
Etheridge’s twins, Johnnie Rose and Miller Steven, whom she welcomed with her ex-partner Tammy Lynn Michaels, were conceived with an anonymous sperm donor.
Melissa Etheridge and David Crosby during Friends of the Dream Foundation at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in California. (SGranitz/WireImage)
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The “I’m the Only One” singer said she’s been open with her children about the fact that she considered Pitt for the donation.
During an appearance on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” in 2019, she said, “My children are like, ‘I could have had Brad Pitt as a father!’” adding, “I’m like, ‘No…’”
She explained at the time, “He’s a very good friend of mine. And then it just seemed like, really complicated. Like, super complicated.”
Pitt shares six children with ex-wife Angelina Jolie – Maddox, Zahara, Pax, Shiloh, and twins Knox and Vivienne.
Pitt with, from left, Pax Jolie-Pitt, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt and Maddox Jolie-Pitt in 2014. He also shares Zahara, Knox and Vivienne with Angelina Jolie. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)
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The former couple has been in a series of legal battles over custody and their winery, since Jolie filed for divorce in 2016.
Etheridge has supported Pitt following the divorce, though she admitted she hadn’t spoken with him directly for a while.
“It breaks my heart that anyone would take something as personal as your marriage and your relationship and your rights to your children and do it as purposefully as I see it’s being done,” she said on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM radio show in 2016.
“I really hope that he reaches back out,” she continued, noting their estrangement, saying, “there are a lot of us who haven’t seen him in 10 years, it was hard then. We all lost a friend.”
Etheridge has said she’s lost contact with Pitt over the years, and as of 2018, hadn’t spoken with him in 15 years. (Getty Images)
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She also commented on Jolie at the time, referring to the “Tomb Raider” star’s relationship with Billy Bob Thornton, who had been engaged to Laura Dern at the time.
“I was around when Angelina was not doing nice things with Billy Bob to Laura Dern. I went through that on a personal level, and then to know the side of Jennifer and Brad…,” she explained. (Etheridge had played at Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s wedding.)
“I helped Laura move out of her house with Billy Bob – I like broke into their home to get their stuff out because it was so nasty.”
In 2018, Etheridge told Us Weekly she hadn’t spoken with Pitt in “15 years.”
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She continued, “I know [it’s kind of sad], that’s why I’m kind of hoping… I just wish him all the happiness in the world. I know [we should reconnect.]”