Melissa Etheridge Recalls Being ‘Horrified’ After Interviewer Called Partner Her 'Boyfriend' Before She'd Publicly Come Out

Ilana KaplanThu, April 30, 2026 at 6:25 PM UTC

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Melissa Etheridge recalled a time when an interviewer referred to her partner as her "boyfriend" in an article

In an interview with Joel Madden on Artist Friendly, the rocker recalled being "horrified" by the adjustments made

Etheridge came out as a lesbian publicly in 1993

Melissa Etheridge was once "horrified" by an interviewer calling her partner her "boyfriend" in an article.

During the Wednesday, April 29 episode of Artist Friendly, the rocker spoke to host Joel Madden about the impact of a journalist making this switch before she publicly came out as a lesbian.

Etheridge, now 64, recalled having an "unspoken" understanding between her and the fans when she would perform after her self-titled debut album was released.

"My first, you know, two rows would be women losing their minds, right? And I'm like, 'I don't know. You know. What's this?'" she said, appearing to refer to her sexuality despite not being publicly out at the time.

According to Etheridge, things shifted around the release of her third album Never Enough. As grunge was going mainstream, she thought, "Hey, I can wear flannel [publicly]."

"I've been wearing flannel for a long time, you know, and I hear 'alternative,' and I'm like, 'This is the time," she said, referring to the idea of coming out.

Etheridge then recalled doing an interview with someone at Music Express magazine, which she said was "crazy."

"I was on the cover of Music Express, and he changed every pronoun that I used," she claimed. "He changed it to my 'boyfriend,' and it horrified me."

Because the gay community was "really strong" but "underground," Etheridge worried that they would think she "did this."

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Her plan was then to come out publicly as a lesbian on The Arsenio Hall Show, but she ended up working on the Bill Clinton and Al Gore presidential campaign in 1992.

Instead, Etheridge ended up coming out at Clinton's inauguration.

In a March 2023 interview with SPIN and FIRE's video series Free Speech + Other Dirty Words, Etheridge opened up about how she experienced censorship when it came to her sexuality.

"There was a moment when I was signed by Island Records, right before the album came out, that there was a meeting at the offices," she said at the time. "Some said, 'So, what are we going to do about the gay thing?' And I was like, 'What do you mean?' I'm not going to pretend I'm something else."

Etheridge also said she refused to "go off and find a guy to take pictures with and pretend like he's my boyfriend."

"I'm going to be me," she said.

Melissa Etheridge in January 2025 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.Credit: Larry Marano/Shutterstock

Eventually, Etheridge was told she just couldn't "flag-wave."

"That was of course before we had a rainbow flag... but four years later I was flag-waving," she said.

After Etheridge released her track “I'm the Only One” — which later became her biggest hit and peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995 — she came out publicly as a lesbian in 1993.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”