‘We are lost’: Beach Boys star Brian Wilson’s tragic personal news

“My heart is broken”: Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson has today released a devastating public statement about his personal life.

USA singer Brian Wilson from band 'The Beach Boys'.

Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson has today issued a heartbreaking statement on social media, announcing the death of his “beloved” wife Melinda.

The 81-year-old co-founder of the iconic American rock group had been married to Melinda, 77, since 1994.

“My heart is broken. Melinda, my beloved wife of 28 years, passed away this morning. Our five children and I are just in tears,” Wilson wrote.

“We are lost. Melinda was more than my wife. She was my saviour. She gave me the emotional security I needed to have a career.”

Brian and Melinda in 2006 … Picture: Getty

… and at the 2016 Golden Globes. Picture: Getty

“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,” Wilson wrote, signing off his statement: “Love and Mercy, Brian.”

Love and Mercy is also the name of a 2014 Wilson biopic, which focused on his declining mental health through the 1960s to 1980s, and the help Melinda offered him after they met. John Cusack and Elizabeth Banks portrayed the couple in the film.

Born Melinda Ledbetter, she was also Wilson’s longtime manager, credited with helping him to seek proper medical care, to tour regularly, and to finally complete his infamous unfinished album Smile, which he recorded in the late 60s and finally released in 2004.

Brian and Melinda also adopted five children together, who have released a moving statement of their own about their mother’s death:

Brian called Melinda his ‘saviour.’ Picture: Picture: Getty

“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,” they began.

She was not only a model, our father’s saviour, and a mother, she was a woman empowered by her spirit with a mission to better everyone she touched. We will miss her but cherish everything she has taught us.

“How to take care of the person next to you with out expecting anything in return, how to find beauty in the darkest of places, and how to live life as your truest self with honesty and pride. We love you mom.

“Give Grandma Rose and Pa our love.”