Etheridge, Cypher: Custody Shared

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/23/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Double Grammy winner Melissa Etheridge, 39, and director Julie Cypher, 36, meant what they said this week when they announced that their split after 12 years was amicable. Their friend and neighbor, actress Kathy Najimy, tells PEOPLE magazine in its Oct. 20 that the couple's two children -- Bailey, 3, and Beckett, 23 months, both fathered by rocker David Crosby -- "will be with their mommies seven days a week, 24 hours a day." Cypher and Etheridge have bought two homes, next door to one another and sharing a common backyard, not far from their previous L.A. mansion, reports PEOPLE. "They'll be able to have breakfast with Momo (their name for Cypher), play in the mutual yard and lunch with Mama (Etheridge)," says Najimy, who adds, "They really do love each other dearly. It's a separation. It's not forever."