Sheryl Crow is sharing details about one of the most challenging periods of her life, when she faced a painful breakup while simultaneously battling breast cancer.
A Double Blow
Speaking on Netflix's The Bobbycast with host Bobby Bones, the 64-year-old singer recalled how her relationship with former fiancé Lance Armstrong fell apart just as she received her cancer diagnosis in 2006.
“I was engaged, I had three beautiful stepchildren, I wanted to have kids with this person,” Crow shared. “We split in the same week I got diagnosed with breast cancer, and I found out he was seeing a really famous actress.”
Crow did not name Armstrong directly or identify the actress, but after their breakup, the cyclist was linked to several high-profile women, including Eva Longoria, Ashley Olsen, and Kate Hudson, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Recovery and Reflection
At the time of her split from Armstrong, Crow said she spent months trying to recover emotionally and physically. “I went through about nine months of radiation and grieving and anger,” she said, per Page Six.
Crow also revealed that a “really stoic oncologist” helped shift her perspective during treatment. The doctor encouraged her not to “miss out on the lesson” cancer could teach her, according to EW. She was 44 at the time and realizing that motherhood might not happen the way she once imagined.
During her relationship with Armstrong, Crow had become close with his three children — which made her yearn to have kids of her own — from his first marriage to Kristin Richard. After beating cancer, Crow decided not to wait any longer to become a parent. In 2007, she announced she had adopted a baby boy named Wyatt, reports EW. Three years later, she adopted another son, Levi.
Impact on Trust
In a 2019 interview with People, she said photographers were camped outside during her lowest moments, hoping to capture her pain publicly. “When I was diagnosed and my relationship fell apart, people were camped outside trying to get that picture of Sheryl Crow at her lowest moment. I just lost all faith in humankind,” she said.
Still, Crow said at the time she eventually rebuilt her life and outlook. “But I licked my wounds. I started feeling like, ‘I’m at a point in my life where I need to manifest something more realistic.’”
Sheryl’s Relationship History with Lance
Crow and Armstrong dated from 2003 until 2006 and were engaged for five months before splitting. According to Us Weekly, one of the major issues was Crow’s desire to have children. In his 2009 book Lance: The Making of the World’s Greatest Champion, Armstrong acknowledged they wanted different things at the time. “She wanted marriage, she wanted children,” he wrote, per Us Weekly. “Not that I didn’t want that, but I didn’t want that at that time because I had just gotten out of a marriage, I’d just had kids.”
