Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong's Relationship Timeline: A Look Back

Back in the 2000s, Grammy-winning musician Sheryl Crow was often seen parading about with a hot new accessory (no, not a pair of cowboy boots — but good guess): former pro cyclist Lance Armstrong. They were unapologetically in love (and never left home without a Livestrong bracelet), and they wanted you to know (we did, by the way). Courtside canoodling! Red carpet makeouts! The PDA was bold and … long-winded?

Following Armstrong's 2004 Tour de France win, the couple shared a kiss that a French journalist described as "fiery, impetuous and nearly unending," per People. 

I mean, between a professional singer and a professional athlete, we imagine the combined lung capacity was above average! However, despite their unbridled attraction toward one another, it wasn't enough. By 2006, the pair decided to call it quits.

Here's a look back at Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong's relationship.

October 2003: Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong first meet

Armstrong and Crow met the way wealthy, famous people often do — at a charity event. Their paths crossed in October 2003 when a 32-year-old Amstrong ran into 41-year-old Crow. The singer-songwriter admitted to People that she "knew pretty quickly" that she was "totally into him." 

January 2004: Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong are first spotted together

Crow and Armstrong went public with their relationship, stepping out at the Los Angeles premiere of Along Came Polly just after the new year. From there, the couple appeared at several events together to show each other support — not to mention lay on the requisite PDA.

August 2005: Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong get engaged

In 2005, Armstrong proposed in a manner befitting The Notebook. The cyclist popped the question during a trip to Sun Valley, Idaho, in the middle of a lake.

"We took this boat out to the middle of the lake, and this is one of these little fishing boats with the motor behind going," Armstrong told Oprah Winfrey. "It ran out of gas in the middle of the lake, and so I thought, you know, we're stuck here. I may as well ask her now."

Though he didn't have the ring on him at the time, he compensated for the spontaneity with a six-carat cushion-cut diamond.

September 2005: Sheryl Crow reveals Lance Armstrong and his kids inspire her music

Crow wasn't just committed to Armstrong; she was to his children as well. She told Rolling Stone in 2005 that the title track on her Wildflower album was inspired by Armstrong and his three kids (Luke and twins Isabelle and Grace).

"It's kind of a reminder, particularly when you look at his young children, how they gravitate to goodness and to light," she explained. "The idea of the song is that no matter how chaotic it is, wildflowers will still spring up in the middle of nowhere."

Of Armstrong's kids, she told Entertainment Weekly, "I love them as much as if they were my own."

Crow drew inspiration from Armstrong's career, too. She called the Tour de France "one of the most inspiring events I've been involved in," reported TODAY.

February 2006: Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong break up

Nearly six months after Armstrong's romantic proposal, the couple split. In February 2006, Armstrong and Crow released a joint statement regarding their surprise breakup.

"After much thought and consideration, we have made a very tough decision to split up," the statement read. "We both have a deep love and respect for each other, and we ask that everyone respect our privacy during this very difficult time."

Adding to the tabloid drama of the split, Crow announced that she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer weeks later. Many were quick to speculate that Armstrong had left her amid the diagnosis, a theory Crow herself debunked in an interview with Good Morning America.

"We really loved each other a lot and still love each other a lot," she insisted. 

Though she wouldn't name a reason for the breakup, she told former host Diane Sawyer that she couldn't "be angry at Lance for being who he is."

"You know, he's a great person, and it's his life, too … It's about what he wants, and it's about what I want. And where the two don't meet, there's definitely a, you know, a fissure," she said of the breakup.

She continued, "It is like a death. And in many ways it's like having part of your life amputated, but you still have that phantom itch, you know, where you wake up and I'll see something and think, 'Oh, I've got to make sure Lance is hip to this band. I've got to put it on his iPod.' And then I remember, 'Oh, wait, you know, that's not my life.'"

In a 2008 interview with Glamour, Crow (who'd been engaged three times) responded to the journalist's suggestion that she "secretly" didn't want to be married. 

"There are definitely reasons as to why I'm not married," she said. "And I think a large part of it is due to the fact that I pick people who don't want to get married."

The couple even poked fun at Armstrong's reluctance to set a wedding date during the cyclist's Saturday Night Live monologue in October 2005.

Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France champion (who's since been stripped of his titles), told Men's Journal in 2017 that he'd "made a mistake to let the public into my relationship with Sheryl."

"It put a lot of pressure on the relationship, and I will never do it again," he went on, noting that he'd make exceptions for events wherein he directly supported his partner by attending. 

Armstrong continued, "But sitting down and doing a bunch of photos, like I did with Sheryl, is just wrong, and I won't do that again."

He then spelled out the reason for his and Crow's split in his book, Lance, telling author John Wilcockson that he and Crow were "up against her biological clock," according to People. 

"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," Armstrong said. "Yet, we're up against her biological clock — that pressure is what cracked it."

When Armstrong admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career in 2013, Crow was asked for her opinion (again and again). Though she often gave canned responses, like she did during an interview with USA Today when she said, "The truth will set you free," Crow ultimately let her feelings be known in late 2013.

"It probably sounds really insulting, but this is one of those I-don't-give-a-fuck moments: I don't think about him," she told Rolling Stone. "It's a nuisance when I'm asked about him, because they weren't the happiest of days. People still attach me to him, and it's gross."

She later told Good Housekeeping in 2014 that she'd made herself "really small" next to Armstong while they were together.

In 2017, Armstrong called his relationship with Crow "a good ride" on The Howard Stern Show, adding that his ex-fiancée was a "great lady," according to Entertainment Tonight.

"It's tough to pull it off," he said of being in a highly publicized relationship. "But she was a great partner."