Sheryl Crow has shed new light on the end of her relationship with Lance Armstrong, saying she was diagnosed with breast cancer and learned the former cyclist had already moved on with a high-profile actress the same week they broke up.
The singer, who shot to fame with the 1994 hit All I Wanna Do, made the revelation in the latest episode of the Netflix series The BobbyCast, without mentioning the seven-time Tour de France winner by name.
“In the same week that we split, I got diagnosed with breast cancer and I found out he was seeing a really famous actress,” she told host Bobby Bones.
Watch the video above.
“I was engaged, I had three beautiful stepchildren, I wanted to have kids with this person.
“And I went through about nine months of radiation and grieving and anger.”
Crow and Armstrong started dating in 2003 and announced their engagement in September 2005.
READ MORE: Tyson Fury’s daughter breaks silence on wedding rumour
READ MORE: Kylie reveals secret second cancer diagnosis
READ MORE: A-lister makes rare appearance with daughter
But they never made it down the aisle and announced their split in a joint statement on February 3, 2006.
That same week, Crow learned she had ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a non-invasive form of breast cancer, and underwent a lumpectomy that same month.
She released a statement to the press revealing she had undergone surgery and would be having further treatment before undergoing seven weeks of radiotherapy.
She later became an advocate for early detection of breast cancer and coupled with her surgeon to open the Sheryl Crow Imaging Centre in 2010.
Crow told Bones that during her cancer battle, her “really stoic oncologist” said something that made her re-evaluate her life.
“One of the things she said to me was, ‘I have had a thousand women come through with breast cancer. Don’t miss out on the lesson’.
“It took my life screeching to a halt to get to a place to go, ‘OK, who am I and why am I doing what I am doing? Do I love what I am doing?'”
Crow told The Guardian in 2021 surviving breast cancer redefined “who and how I am”.
“Until then, I’d spent a lifetime being a caretaker for everyone around me,” she said.
“From then, I started to put myself first. I had voices at the back of my head telling me whatever I did wasn’t good enough. Now, finally, I’ve silenced them.”
Crow had always wanted children – which was a point of contention with Armstrong – and led to their split.
He revealed in his 2009 memoir Lance that he was not ready to have more kids at the time – he already had three from his first marriage.
“She wanted marriage, she wanted children; and 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. Yet, we’re up against her biological clock that pressure is what cracked it.”
He went on to have two children, Max, who was born in 2009, and Olivia, who followed a year later, with current wife, Anna Hansen, whom he married in 2022.
Meanwhile, Crow went on to adopt two children as a single mother; Wyatt, now 19, and Levi, who is 16. She raised them primarily in Tennessee after moving there permanently in 2008.
During the podcast, she discussed having children in her 40s and whether she struggled with being an older mum.
For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.
“I got my first kid when I was 45. I got my second kid when I was 48,” she said.
“I’ve always felt young … I’ve always been in really good shape. I trampoline every night. To me, age was not a factor.”
Crow said being an older mum also meant she never felt like she was missing anything in her career and was able to devote herself to her sons.
“There was nothing that came along that I thought ever felt like I was going to miss out on. I have been at every baseball game.”
FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.
