Sheryl Crow recalled fighting breast cancer while watching her former fiancé Lance Armstrong move on after their breakup.
“I was engaged, I had three beautiful stepchildren, I wanted to have kids with this person. We split in the same week … I got diagnosed with breast cancer,” Crow, 64, recalled on the Tuesday, May 19, episode of Bobby Bones’ “The Bobbycast” podcast on Netflix. “[Then] I found out he was seeing a really famous actress.”
She continued, “I really felt like I went through about nine months of radiation and grieving and anger.”
Crow and Armstrong, 54, were together from 2003 to 2006, when they broke off their five-month engagement over the singer’s desires to have children. (Armstrong shares son Luke, 26, and twin daughters Isabelle and Grace, 24, with ex-wife Kristin Richard, later welcoming two children with current wife Anna Hansen ahead of their 2022 wedding.)
Many celebrities have spoken out about their personal battles with breast cancer over the years. Julia Louis-Dreyfus went public with her breast cancer diagnosis in September 2017 via Instagram. Nearly one year later, she had successfully beaten the illness and returned to work on Veep. “It sounds kind of corny, but there’s something about after […]
For Crow, it wasn’t until she spoke with her physician that she was able to move forward from the breakup.
“I had a really stoic oncologist who literally looked like my grandmother. One of the things that she said to me was like, ‘I’ve had a thousand women come through with breast cancer. Don’t miss out on the lesson,’” she recalled. “I realized, having gone through all that, that I am a caretaker. I’m the last person I take care of. I take care of everybody’s emotions [and] I make sure everybody is good with me.”
Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong arrive at the ‘Vanity Fair’ Oscar Party in February 2005. Mark Mainz/Getty Images
Crow added, “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’m doing? Do I love what I’m doing? What am I supposed to be doing? Do I want to be a mom?’”
After Crow’s breast cancer went into remission, she adopted son Wyatt in 2007 and son Levi in 2010.
Sheryl Crow is the proud mom of two sons, Wyatt and Levi, who she adopted in 2007 and 2010, respectively. “One of the greatest things — and I’m fresh off the road with my kids — is sharing new things with them,” the “All I Wanna Do” singer exclusively told Us Weekly in 2017. “My […]
“I have my own belief system. I believe your kids pick you. I don’t think you ever get the wrong kid. I know that sounds really woo-woo, but your kid picked you at this moment,” she stated on Tuesday. “You’re ready, and you don’t want to spend too much time overanalyzing, ‘Why now? Am I gonna be this? Am I gonna be that?’ Because then you miss out on the now.”
Crow continued, “It took me forever to get to the place where I was, like, open-armed and like, ‘OK, I may not get to be a mom. I’ve loved a lot of amazing people and I’ve loved some other people too, and that was where I got off.’ At which point, I was like, ‘OK, God, I’m just gonna get in the boat, I’m gonna start rowing. If you meet me halfway with a baby, great, [and] if you don’t.’ Lo and behold, the two boys that I have could not be more brother-ish, could not be more of a Crow and it could not have picked me at a [better time]. I mean, I was ready and I was awake and aware, and I wanted them.”
