Melissa Etheridge Splits From Girlfriend

N E W  Y O R K, Sept. 19 -- It’s been a bad year for lesbian love.

Rocker Melissa Etheridge and her girlfriend, director JulieCypher, announced today they were ending their relationship after12 years. The couple has two small children together.

“With the utmost of love and respect for one another, we havedecided to separate,” the couple announced in a statement releasedby Etheridge’s label, Island Records.

Kids Are ‘Top Priority’

“As committed parents, our top priority continues to be what isin the best interest of our children. Though elements of our liveswill change, our family will always remain intact.”

Etheridge and Cypher were one of Hollywood’s most famous lesbiancouples, after Ellen DeGeneres and Ann Heche, who announced theirbreakup last month.

Cypher gave birth to the couple’s 3-year-old daughter and1-year-old son. In January, they revealed to Rolling Stone magazinethat rock legend David Crosby was the children’s biological father,donating the sperm so the couple could conceive through artificialinsemination.

Etheridge’s publicist, Sheila Richman, told The Associated Pressthe couple would not discuss custody issues or any otherdetails of the split.