The Untold Story: How Brian Wilson’s Wife Became His Lifeline Through the Beach Boys’ Darkest Years – A Bond That Defied Chaos and Saved a Legend
Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson had a love outside of music, and that was his wife Melinda Ledbetter who he remained married to until she died last year
Beach Boys star Brian Wilson and his wife Melinda Ledbetter were married until her death(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The late Beach Boy singer Brian Wilson and his wife Melinda Ledbetter’s romance dates back to 1986 when the two crossed paths at a car dealership.
Even though the couple called it quits three years into the relationship on account of Brian’s therapist and then-legal guardian Dr. Eugene Landy, they went on to get married and start a family together. The pair remained married until Melinda died in 2024. In just over a year, Brian died at the age of 82— his children announced the death of the entertainer on Wednesday.
Before the couple passed away their love story was so inspiring it was the source for the 2015 biopic, Love & Mercy, starring John Cusack as Brian and Elizabeth Banks as Melinda.
“I remember meeting her at her dealership, Cadillac, and I said, ‘God, she’s a pretty girl,”‘ Brian told ABC News in an interview with his wife in 2015. “I just said to myself, ‘God, I think I’ll see her again sometime.’”
Brian and Melinda’s love story was used as inspiration for the 2015 biopic Love & Mercy
Melinda added, “that’s what attracted me to him,” and that Brian “was so nice.”
According to Rolling Stone, it was Melinda’s fastest sale to ever happen for her.
“And he bought the ugliest car,” Melinda said with a giggle in a joint 1999 interview with her husband for the news outlet. “Honey, I always thought that was an ugly Seville, that color brown.”
Brian insisted that he “liked” the car. The late Dr. Eugene had great influence over Brian’s life at one point in time.
Dr. Eugene ended up being prevented from having any contact with the Brian in 1992, which was a year after the latter’s relatives sued Dr. Eugene, claiming he had “undue influence” over the music superstar.
“His life was pretty choreographed,” Melinda explained. Dr. Eugene was the one who set up Melinda and Brian’s first date.
“But I just thought Brian was, like, the sweetest guy I had ever met. I thought, ‘I gotta go see what this is all about,” she shared.
Brian and Melinda were together for three years until Dr. Eugene intervened to shutdown their romance.
“He was overmedicating Wilson and doing a lot of things that doctors shouldn’t do,” Melinda divulged to Rolling Stone.
“I was questioning things, and that pissed him off. But I had seen something that was so wrong — it was like someone taking a child and abusing them, and none of the neighbors wanted to know about it,” she confessed.
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