Etheridge, Partner Split

ByABC News
September 20, 2000, 7:33 PM

September 19 -- There's yet another opening for a high-profile lesbian couple in Hollywood, hot on the heels of the split between comedienne Ellen DeGeneres and actress Anne Heche. On Monday, singer Melissa Etheridge and her longtime partner, filmmaker Julie Cypher, announced that they are going separate ways. Oh, well, at least their story didn't end with one of them tottering up to a stranger's door dazed and in a state of semi-undress, à la Heche.

"With the utmost love and respect for one another, we have decided to separate," the couple said in a joint statement released by Etheridge's management company, according to gay and lesbian periodical The Advocate. "As committed parents, our top priority continues to be what is in the best interest of our children. Though elements of our lives will change, our family will always remain intact."

Etheridge, whose hits include "Come to My Window" and "I Want to Come Over," and Cypher have been a couple for 12 years. They have two children, daughter Bailey Jean, 3, and son Beckett, 21 months. In a January cover story for Rolling Stone, Etheridge and Cypher revealed that the children's biological father, at one time rumored to be Brad Pitt, was, in fact, 53-year-old rocker David Crosby.

"They wanted to get it over and done with before the kids grow up and go to school, and have it be ancient history by the time the kids are out there," Crosby later told Wall of Sound of the couple's decision to disclose his identity. "And I think that's entirely appropriate."

But Etheridge and Cypher's decision to live as openly as possible came with its share of pitfalls. "The biggest misconception that people have about me is that I'm in this perfect relationship, with perfect children, and that I'm just fine. That's not true," Etheridge confessed in a 1999 interview with The Advocate. "My relationship with Julie requires a great deal of work, and sometimes it is a crisis."

Before hooking up with Etheridge, Cypher was married to actor Lou Diamond Phillips; they divorced in 1990. Her credits include directing the 1994 comedy Teresa's Tattoo, starring C. Thomas Howell and Nancy McKeon (formerly the oh-so-feminine Jo on TV's The Facts of Life), which featured cameos by Etheridge and k.d. lang.