Stevie Nicks Shared the Story of the Christmas She Became ‘Grandma Stevie’

Over the course of her life, Stevie Nicks has been known as Fleetwood Mac’s breakout star, a successful soloist, and, somewhat surprisingly, Grandma Stevie. Though she does not have children of her own, she has become a grandma figure to one person. She shared the story of the Christmas that she realized she was Grandma Stevie and her pledge to her “granddaughter.”

Stevie Nicks was briefly married to her best friend’s widower

Though Nicks believed she would never get married, grief pushed her into unexpected nuptials. In 1983, Nicks’ lifelong best friend Robin Snyder Anderson died of leukemia just days after giving birth. Nicks believed that by marrying her friend’s widower, Kim Anderson, she could help raise his infant son. 

“It was a terrible, terrible mistake,” Nicks told Vulture. “We didn’t get married because we were in love, we got married because we were grieving and it was the only way that we could feel like we were doing anything.”

According to Nicks, she and Anderson quickly realized that the marriage was a mistake.

“That wasn’t really a marriage,” Nicks explained. “We did it to take care of her son. And, three weeks later, we realized that that wasn’t going to work.”

She told the story of the time she became ‘Grandma Stevie’

Though the marriage didn’t work out, Nicks eventually reconnected with Anderson’s son, Matthew, after eight years. She put him through college and now has a close relationship with his daughter, Robin. 

“Little Robin is five years old,” Nicks told The Guardian in 2020. “Last Christmas, she was at my house and she comes into the kitchen, grabs my hand and goes: ‘Come with me, Grandma Stevie,’ and I’m going: ‘Did this child just call me Grandma Stevie?’ She did.”

Nicks said she was deeply touched by this, not just because of her love for Robin, but for the way she can now honor her late friend. 

“On that day I wrote in my journal and it said: ‘I promise you, Robin, that I will be Grandma Stevie until death do us part,’” she said. “Life has these weird turnarounds, you know. I say to my friend Robin, who died so long ago: ‘Look through my eyes at your granddaughter.’ She was yours and now she is mine.”

Stevie Nicks does not have any biological children

Nicks said that her music career always came before getting married and starting a family. In 1979, she had an abortion, which she believes allowed Fleetwood Mac to thrive.

“I would have had to walk away,” she said. “And I knew that the music we were going to bring to the world was going to heal so many people’s hearts and make people so happy. And I thought: you know what? That’s really important. There’s not another band in the world that has two lead women singers, two lead women writers. That was my world’s mission.”

Though she does not have biological children, Nicks has a close relationship with Robin and many goddaughters. She has also helped guide many female artists through the music industry, prompting The Chicks’ Natalie Maines to call her the “rock and roll Mama.”