Doris Day’s Journey To Heal 10 Years After The Death of Her Only Son: “He Was The Love of Her Life”

Ten years after the death of her son, Terry Melcher, Doris Day’s family and friends open up exclusively in the new issue of 'Closer Weekly' and reveal how she has found the strength to heal and move forward since his devastating death on Nov.19, 2004, after a long battle with melanoma.

Doris tells 'Closer' that her greatest heartbreak was “losing my dear son, Terry. He was such a huge part of my life, and I miss him all the time.”

“Terry did so much for Doris,” Terese Melcher, Terry’s widow exclusively shares with the mag. “He was a wonderful son, and she really relied on him. He spoke with her every day, at least once a day if not more.”

Doris and her son, Terry, in Jan. 1950. (Photo Credit: Getty)

“He was the only son she had,” Doris’ friend Dennis LeVett shares with 'Closer.' “She talks about Terry all the time. Terry was the love of her life.”

Despite his mother’s worldwide fame, she was always just Mom to him. “Shortly before his death, I asked Terry, ‘Do you realize what a star your mom was and still is?’” Ernie Bringas, a member of Terry’s band, the Rip Chords, recalls to 'Closer.' “He said, ‘Yeah, man!’ He really admired his mom a lot — he had a tremendous respect for her.”

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Still, if there’s one thing Doris has in common with her plucky on-screen alter egos, it’s that you can’t keep her down. T. Robert Bashara, Doris’ friend and CFO of her foundation, tells 'Closer,' “Doris has always been one that picks herself right back up and perseveres.”

For more from Doris’s close friends and family, pick up the new issue of Closer Weekly on newsstands now.