Melissa Etheridges son, Beckett Cypher, died at the age of 21 due to opioid addiction. Melissa Etheridge has been open about her sons struggle with addiction and how it has affected her family. She has also founded The Etheridge Foundation to help fund research related to opioid addiction. In an interview with Today, Melissa Etheridge said that she felt "helpless" watching her son battle addiction, but the support of her wife and her three other children has helped her immensely. In another interview with USA Today, Melissa Etheridge said that she is coping with the grief of losing her child to opioid addiction "one day at a time" and that "in the end, theres a small amount of peace knowing hes not in pain anymore".