Beach Boys' Brian Wilson Announces Death of 'Savior' Wife Melinda: 'She Was My Anchor'

Mar. 15, 2025

Melinda Wilson and Brian Wilson in Toronto in September 2014.Photo: Stefanie Keenan/Getty

Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, the wife of Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson for nearly three decades, has died. She was 77.

The musician, 81, announced Melinda’s death inan Instagram poston Tuesday, saying his “heart is broken” at the loss of his “beloved wife.”

“Our five children and I are just in tears. We are lost,” he captioned a set of throwback shots of Melinda. “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. Love and Mercy Brian.”

The post also included a message from the pair’s children, who said she died peacefully at home on Tuesday morning.

“I’ve never had a relationship with a girl like we have,” Wilson told PEOPLE in 1998. “She’s a partner who’s also a best friend.”

Melinda, meanwhile, praised her husband’s “vulnerability,” saying he was “probably the most sane person I know,” but struggled to “deal with the world’s insanity.”

Brian Wilson and wife Melinda on their wedding day.David Keeler/Getty

In 2014, their life together got the biopic treatment withLove & Mercy, which starredJohn CusackandElizabeth Banksas Brian and Melinda. The film gave viewers a deep dive on Wilson’s struggles with mental illness, and chronicled his complicated relationship with his therapist and legal guardian Dr. Eugene Landy.

It was Melinda who helped free Wilson from Landy’s grips, and in 1991, his brother, mother and daughters sued Landy, arguing he’d exerted “undue influence” over Wilson’s life. Their suit was successful, and Landy was barred from contacting his famous client in 1992.

“I didn’t know how tough it would be,” Melindatold ABC Newsof the film in 2015. “I think I was more nervous than him when I took him to see it, and after, I said, ‘So what did you think?’ And he goes, ‘Oh, it was really a lot worse in real life.’”

source: people.com