The cause of death for Jackson Browne‘s model-actor-musician son Ethan Browne has been revealed.
Ethan Browne, 52, who was found unresponsive at his home on Nov. 25, died due to the effects of fentanyl, methamphetamine and lidocaine, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner revealed Tuesday, adding that the death was ruled an accident.
The elder Browne shared the news of his son’s death on his Facebook account the day after he was found dead.
“It is with deep sorrow that we share that on the morning of Nov. 25, 2025, Ethan Browne, the son of Jackson Browne and Phyllis Major, was found unresponsive in his home and has passed away,” the post read. “We ask for privacy and respect for the family during this difficult time. No further details are available at this moment.”
Ethan Browne’s mother, the model Phyllis Major, died by suicide when he was only two years old.
Ethan modeled for designers including Isaac Mizrahi and appeared in the films Hackers (1995), Raising Helen (2004) and the TV series Birds of Prey. He also followed his father into music, performing as part of the duo Alain Zane with Cat Colbert.
Ethan Browne also appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone with his father when he was just six months old.
In 2021, Jackson Browne looked back at what it was like to pursue a music career while being a single father.
“I only had two things that I hoped I could fit together: being a songwriter and a father,” he told Route magazine. “And I looked at it like this, if I have to only be a father, I hope I’ll know it, and just do that. But life’s not like that and you don’t get a notice in the mail saying you’re blowing it as a parent. You think you have the advice and the help you need, and sometimes you don’t, or you don’t heed it. The mistakes I’ve made as a parent are still with me. I think about them fairly often. It’s not that you’re not trying the whole time. It’s not that I wasn’t trying then. You’re just distracted by other things and some things don’t occur to you. Or maybe you ignore advice that you should have taken, because you’re overconfident.”
