Melissa Etheridge’s Ex Files For Full Custody Of Couple’s Children

Melissa Etheridge’s former domestic partner, Tammy Lynn Michaels, has filed for full custody of the couple’s two children, Access Hollywood has confirmed.

According to documents filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court earlier this week, Michaels is seeking full legal and physical custody of their twins — son Miller and daughter Johnnie, who she gave birth to in 2006. She is asking that Etheridge be allowed visitation rights to the two kids.

Michaels, who filed for a dissolution of marriage instead of the accurate choice of a dissolution of domestic partnership, deliberately made the paperwork mistake, according to her attorney.

“Tammy filed a dissolution of marriage, because in her eyes this was a marriage. Both she and Melissa gave it the dignity of a marriage – they had a marital ceremony back in 2001,” her attorney Steve Knowles told People. “If the court system says there was no such thing as a marriage and tells us we have to amend it to a domestic partnership, so be it. It’s a symbolic act on Tammy’s part, and frankly she thought it would be better for the children if they were recognized as children of a married couple. … It was not at all Tammy’s decision to go down the route to dissolve their marriage.”

Michaels is also asking for spousal support from the 49-year-old singer.

TMZ reported that Michaels only has $4 to her name.

“Melissa has not been treating Tammy or the children as if they are a wife and children, financially and otherwise,” Knowles claimed, telling TMZ that Etheridge has not given Michaels or the children any money since the split.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Etheridge filed to dissolve her domestic partnership with Michaels earlier this month.

The former couple registered as domestic partners in August 2005.