Melinda Ledbetter, Brian Wilson’s second wife, died Tuesday morning, Wilson announced on social media. Ledbetter was 77.
“My heart is broken,” the Beach Boys co-founder wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Melinda, my beloved wife of 28 years, passed away this morning. Our five children and I are just in tears. We are lost. Melinda was more than my wife. She was my savior. She gave me the emotional security I needed to have a career.”
“She encouraged me to make the music that was closest to my heart. She was my anchor. She was everything for us. Please say a prayer for her,” he said in another post.
Wilson married Ledbetter in 1995 after they met while she was working at a car dealership. They went on to adopt five children while they were together.