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Musicians Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham first met in high school and went on to join the acclaimed band, Fleetwood Mac. After dating for years, Nicks and Buckingham broke up and have had a tumultuous relationship since. In 2013, Nicks was featured on an episode of Oprah’s Master Class: The Podcast where she discussed her relationship with Buckingham.

Stevie Nicks stands arm-in-arm with Lindsey Buckingham beside Christine McVie and John McVie on stage in front of a blue curtain
Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, and John McVie of Fleetwood Mac | Lester Cohen/Getty Images for NARAS

Lindsey Buckingham thought his life with Stevie Nicks would be different

Buckingham and Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974. At the time, the two were dating and worked together as a music duo.

In an episode of Oprah’s Master Class: The Podcast, Nicks revealed that Buckingham blamed their breakup on joining Fleetwood Mac.

“Lindsey always blamed Fleetwood Mac for the loss of me, that had we not joined Fleetwood Mac, we would have continued on with our music,” Nicks shared on the podcast.

Nicks believes that she and Buckingham would have had “a different life,” but thinks “destiny” wanted the two in Fleetwood Mac.

“But we probably would have gotten married, we probably would have had a child, and it would have been a different life. We were still young enough then that destiny could have taken us another way. But destiny did not take us that way. Destiny took us straight into Fleetwood Mac,” the singer said on Oprah’s Master Class: The Podcast.

The musicians almost broke up when they first joined Fleetwood Mac

At the time Nicks and Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac, their relationship was already rocky. However, they worked to stay together for the good of the band.

“You just have to throw yourself into your song. I mean, I broke up with Lindsey in 1976. We’d only been in Fleetwood Mac for a year and a half, and we were breaking up when we joined Fleetwood Mac,” Nicks once told The New Yorker.

She continued, “So we just put our relationship kind of back together, because I was smart enough to know that, if we had broken up the second month of being in Fleetwood Mac, it would have blown the whole thing.”

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Stevie Nicks Said ‘It’s Possible’ She and Lindsey Buckingham Would Have Married If They’d Never Joined Fleetwood Mac

Why Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham broke up

Speaking with The New Yorker, Nicks shared that while she and Buckingham kept their relationship together for the sake of the band, the two were not “happy.” Eventually, they could not keep up appearances any longer.

“I just bided my time, and tried to make everything as easy as possible, tried to be as sweet and nice to Lindsey as I could be. He wasn’t happy, either,” said Nicks. “Then something happened that was, you know, ‘We’re done.’ And he knew it. It was time.”

Even though Nicks and Buckingham broke up in 1976, Nicks knew that Fleetwood Mac would be all right.

“And the band was solid, by that time, so I could walk away knowing that he was safe. And that the band was safe. And that we could work it out,” Nicks told The New Yorker.

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