Tammy Lynn Michaels Admits to Burning Son With Cigarettes
Actress Tammy Lynn Michaels has admitted to burning her 5-year-old son Miller with a cigarette. The news comes amid the fallout from her break-up with singer-performer Melissa Etheridge.
"One second I was watching a kid chase a dog, the next second a kid was jumping me from behind," Michaels wrote on her Internet blog yesterday. "How come I was the only one that hollered? That kid [son Miller] has insane pain tolerance, his tender flesh to the nicotine pencil on fire. So fast, so quick, he insisted it didn't hurt."
"Thank God it's written now, for all the world to see. It's hard to hide a secret," Michaels added. Her admission comes on the heels of the separation from partner Melissa Etheridge and is the latest in a long line of revealing information from Michaels.
She has also written about giving up her acting career for a relationship with Etheridge and raising their 5-year-old twins.
"One might see that I was financially doing phenomenally before I entered a relationship where there was another person with money [Etheridge]. When I was asked to stop actively seeking work, I was okay with that. There were kids that needed to be tracked and loved and taken care of," she explained.
Michaels' statements stand in direct opposition to what Etheridge told Oprah Winfrey in 2010, when the separation was first announced. The separation, Etheridge said, was "as mutual as those things can be."
It has not been mutual at all, though, and the two have struggled over nearly aspect of their lives, including custody of their children and the payments Etheridge makes to Michaels for living arrangements.
"Literally she has no cash," Michaels' attorney Steven Knowles said in a statement. However, Etheridge is providing over $23,000 per month to her former partner. The two had been together for several years before having a commitment ceremony; Etheridge filed for separation in 2010, and things have only gotten worse between the two.
