Melissa Ethridge’s late son, Beckett, openly came out to her as a teenager.
The singer told viewers of “The Kelly Clarkson Show” on Wednesday about the moment, which happened when Beckett was “about 11 years old.”
“He said, ‘Mom, I’m sorry, but I think I’m straight,'” the Grammy winner recalled with a smile.
Clarkson, 43, laughed out loud at the “unbelievable” story and quipped: “I’m so sorry I let you down.”
Etheridge, who came out as gay in January 1993, joked that he “tried to tell[Beckett]it was a phase.”
Clarkson teased the idea that Etheridge and then-partner Julie Cypher were “trying to pray soon.”
The anecdote came when Clarkson praised Etheridge’s “Tomboy” song, in which she sings, “When a little girl is strong, there’s nothing weak.”
The 64-year-old wrote the lyrics to clap back at the stigma surrounding girls who like sports and things like Hot Wheels, but said children’s toys aren’t “as much” differentiated between men and women anymore.
Clarkson agreed, noting that while “things have changed a little bit,” her 9-year-old son Remington still has “questions.”
“He said, ‘Someone told me not to paint my nails,'” she said. “And I was like, ‘You can do whatever you want.'”
The American Idol alum and mother of 11-year-old daughter River gave a shoutout to “people like Harry Styles who own whatever they want.”
She added: “Sometimes there’s still this influence of what it means to be a boy and what it means to be a girl, and that’s annoying. Especially when it comes to parents, they’re like, ‘Do whatever you want and that’s fine.'”
Etheridge agreed, saying, “Kids just come in as they are, and just watching them discover that is really (special).”
In addition to Beckett, who died in May 2020 at the age of 21 from opioid addiction, she and Cypher are also parents to a 29-year-old daughter, Bailey.
Additionally, Etheridge welcomed 19-year-old twins Johnny and Miller before splitting from ex Tammy Lynn Michaels.
