Melissa Etheridge Talks Falling In Love With Wife Linda Wallem Over Sippy Cups

Melissa Etheridge and Linda Wallem fell for each other while the longtime friends were taking care of the rocker’s four kids.

Melissa visited Access Hollywood Live on Thursday and chatted with Billy Bush and Kit Hoover about her new wife, who she married in May.

“We were best friends. This is the first time I’ve ever done it that way,” Melissa, 53, who previously had relationships with Julie Cypher and Tammy Lynn Michaels, said.

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“But to be friends with someone, to know them for almost 10 years, intimately — they know your life, best friend,” she continued. “She was the one I called when I was single and I said, ‘I’m a single mom now, I got four kids at home, will you please come help me on your hiatus from ‘Nurse Jackie’?’… You have to be careful because you don’t want to lose your best friend and if you’re like me you don’t have a very good track record.”

While Linda helped with Melissa with her four kids (Bailey Jean Cypher, Johnnie Rose Etheridge, Miller Steven Etheridge and Beckett Cypher), the rocker said they fell for each other.

“Slowly one morning, literally over a sippy cups, I’m running [around] making lunches, I said, ‘Where are the sippy cups?’ She said, ‘Well, dear,'” Melissa explained of the moment when she first realized something romantic was developing with Linda. “We were like a married couple without the benefits, so why not have the benefits!?”

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But was the first kiss between the longtime friends awkward?

“It was beautiful, it was actually really sweet,” she said of first locking lips with Linda. “It was strange. I was like, ‘I don’t know, I’ve looked at this person forever,’ and yet there was something there. It totally worked. I kissed and then I ran away and then I came back that morning and said, ‘OK, I think I can do this. I just had to go think about it.'”

Melissa told Billy and Kit that Linda has been a wonderful creative partner as well.

(Melissa Etheridge on Access Hollywood Live on October 9, 2014 – Access Hollywood)

“She’s amazing,” the Grammy winner said of her wife. “I like to take my work to her. I’ll play songs and ask her opinion.”

Melissa and Linda (creator of “Nurse Jackie”) began dating in 2010. In June 2013, the couple announced their engagement.’

 

— Jesse Spero