Megyn Kelly‘s 10-year-old son Edward Yates got some help from a very special family friend while mourning the loss of his beloved music teacher, Don Sorel.
After the former Today and Fox News host, 49, tweeted the sad news last week that Yates’ music teacher had died as a result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), she spoke to PEOPLE about how former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora stepped in to lift her son’s spirits.
“Yates and Richie have met and spent time together, so they know each other. They’ve danced together to Bon Jovi songs and it’s actually quite delightful,” Kelly says, adding of a recent FaceTime conversation she and husband Douglas Brunt had with Sambora, 60, “We talked about Yates, we talked about music and his music teacher and all that stuff. We must have talked for an hour. It was a great catch-up. And then he asked if he could speak to Yates and we arranged for the next day.”
The mother of three admits that what she thought would “be a 5-minute conversation just to make Yates feel better” from someone her son “admires” ended up lasting more than an hour: “Richie’s asking him all these questions and Yates is answering and they’re laughing together. Richie was not checking a box,” Kelly says.
And not only that, but Sambora’s phone call came with a generous (and musical) offer: “ says, ‘You know, Richie offered to send me a guitar.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable. Richie Sambora is sending you a guitar?’ And he’s like, ‘Yes.’ And he goes, ‘And he asked if I would be available by FaceTime for some lessons and we could write a song together about Mr. Sorel.’ ”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“I thought Richie was going to come up with a little ditty; it was well beyond that,” she adds, sharing that Sambora also offered to send her son an amplifier.
Sambora — who previously met Kelly at the 2016 Kentucky Derby and later “fell in love with” the family, after they “ran into each other at the Four Seasons in Hawaii” — tells PEOPLE he asked for Yates to “talk to Papa Richie” after hearing what had happened with his teacher and encouraged the little boy to journal his emotions.
“I said, ‘Well, how are you feeling?’ Then he starts to write some stuff down,” Sambora says of the “very adult conversation” he had with Yates. “I said, ‘I know you’re sad about your teacher, so let’s write about that.’ Basically, it was like, ‘You just write your thoughts down and then you gather them into a pile and see … you start making up your feelings, and then you put a melody on it.’ ”
“I’m sad. I sent him a guitar. I think they’re going to get it tomorrow,” the musician (who’s dad to daughter Ava, 22) continues, promising to “be teaching” Yates “virtually however long he wants to do it.”
RELATED VIDEO: Megyn Kelly on Leaving Fox News So She Could Watch Her Kids Grown Up: “I Hadn’t Tucked Them Into Bed on a Weeknight in Three Years”
Kelly is “a lifelong Bon Jovi fan” who “always loved Richie but never knew him,” which makes his relationship with their family (which also includes son Thatcher Bray, 6½, and daughter Yardley Evans, 9) extra meaningful.
“He spent a lot of time with my kids on a vacation where we just happened to be at the same place,” she tells PEOPLE. “And he’s coming over and dancing with them and playing songs, so our relationship with him and his relationship with my kids when it comes to music was pre-established.”
“But this is still above and beyond,” Kelly raves.
As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments. To help provide doctors and nurses on the front lines with life-saving medical resources, donate to Direct Relief here.
Source: People.com (https://people.com/parents/richie-sambora-helped-megyn-kelly-son-music-teacher-dead-exclusive/)
0 Comments