Sheryl Crow Shares Insights on Her Relationship with Lance Armstrong
Sheryl Crow has opened up about the end of her relationship with Lance Armstrong, revealing that she was diagnosed with breast cancer and discovered he had already moved on with a high-profile actress during the same week they broke up. The singer, known for her 1994 hit “All I Wanna Do,” shared these details in an episode of the Netflix series The BobbyCast, without naming the seven-time Tour de France winner.
“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. “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 began dating in 2003 and announced their engagement in September 2005. However, they never made it down the aisle and officially 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 later became an advocate for early detection of breast cancer and partnered with her surgeon to open the Sheryl Crow Imaging Centre in 2010.
During her cancer battle, Crow reflected on the impact of her diagnosis. “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?’”
In a 2021 interview with The Guardian, Crow said surviving breast cancer redefined her sense of self. “Until then, I’d spent a lifetime being a caretaker for everyone around me. 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 became a point of contention with Armstrong. He revealed in his 2009 memoir Lance that he was not ready to have more kids at the time—having 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.”
Armstrong went on to have two children, Max, born in 2009, and Olivia, born a year later, with his current wife, Anna Hansen, whom he married in 2022. Meanwhile, Crow became a single mother after moving to Tennessee in 2008, adopting two children: Wyatt, now 19, and Levi, who is 16.
During the podcast, Crow discussed having children in her 40s and whether she struggled with being an older mum. “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 emphasized that being an older mum allowed her to focus on her sons without feeling like she was missing out on her career. “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.”
