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Who Was Brian Wilson's Wife Melinda Wilson? Exploring Her Life And Career As Beach Boys Star's 'Saviour' Dies At 77
Melinda Wilson, wife of Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, passed away at 77. Explore her life, career, and pivotal role in saving the music icon. Cause of her death is not yet known.
Melinda Wilson, the wife of Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson died on Tuesday, January 30 at age 77.
Her death was announced on Brian’s Instagram page, where the 81-year-old singer and songwriter wrote, “My heart is broken. Melinda, my beloved wife of 28 years, passed away this morning. Our five children and I are just in tears.”
Calling his late wife his ‘savior’ and his ‘anchor,’ Brian Wilson continued, “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 to us. Please say a prayer for her.”
Melinda and Brian Wilson, who had been married for almost three decades met when the former sold Brian a Cadillac. Everything you need to know about her life and career before she met and very famously saved her superstar husband Brian Wilson is down below.
Melinda Wilson - Early Life and Career
Melinda Wilson was born Melinda Kae Ledbetter on October 2, 1946, in Pueblo, Colorado. While not much is known about her mother Rosemary’s profession, we do know that her father was an Air Force pilot. 
Before meeting her musician husband, Melinda worked as a model for sixteen years for designers like Bob Mackie, Anne Klein, and more. She later became a salesperson for a Cadillac dealership in Los Angeles. While being employed there, she met her future husband, Brian Wilson, who then was allegedly under the control and influence of his therapist Eugene Landy.
Marriage to Brian Wilson - How Melinda Wilson became her husband’s savior
Melinda met Brian Wilson in 1986 while selling him a Cadillac at the aforestated dealership. Three years after first connecting, the couple realized things had started getting serious between them. This is when Melinda ordered Brian to sever ties with his controlling therapist Landy. Melinda, who played a pivotal role in liberating Brian Wilson from Landy’s influence, spoke about the period in a 2004 interview with Larry King.
“He was called in to help, and I think originally he did help. He helped Brian lose weight. He helped Brian care of himself physically again. As time went on, he became very captive of Brian. Brian was primarily a prisoner,” she said.
After saving Brian Wilson from his therapist who exerted undue control over his life, Brain and Melinda got married in 1995. In 1999, Melinda became her musician husband’s manager, a job which per her is “basically negotiating, and that's what I did every single day when I sold cars.”
Melinda and Brian Wilson adopted five kids
Melinda Wilson with her husband Brian adopted five children - Dakota Ros, Daria Rose, Delanie Rae, Dylan, and Dash. Post their mother’s demise, the five children expressed their grief in an additional statement in their father’s aforementioned Instagram post. “It is with a heavy heart that we let everyone know that our mom, Melinda Kay Ledbetter Wilson, passed away peacefully this morning at home. She was a force of nature and one of the strongest women you could come by. She was not only a model, our father’s savior, and a mother, she was a woman empowered by her spirit to better everyone she touched,” the statement read. The children also shared they’ll cherish everything Melinda taught them including how to “take care of the person next to you with out expecting anything in return.”
No cause of Melinda Wilson’s death is known yet.
Love and Mercy - Brian Wilson and Melinda Wilson’s love story in pop culture
In 2014, Melinda and Brian Wilson’s life and love story got the biopic treatment. John Cusack and Elizabeth Banks starred as Brian and Melinda in the biopic film titled Love and Mercy. In an interview after the film's release, Melinda said it was tough watching the film.
“I didn't know how tough (watching) it would be. I think I was more nervous than him (Brian Wilson) 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’,” she told ABC’s Nightline.
Melinda Wilson is survived by her husband Brian and their five adopted children.
ALSO READ: Who Was Chita Rivera? Exploring Her Life And Career As Broadway Legend Dies At 91
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