Real-Life Couples of Fleetwood Mac: The Stories Behind Their Tumultuous Love Lives & Famous Affairs

Fleetwood Mac’s legendary music wasn’t the only thing captivating fans—so was the band’s dramatic love lives. Fleetwood Mac’s relationships were as tumultuous as their iconic songs, from on-again, off-again romances to fiery affairs that almost tore the group apart. Below, explore the real-life couples of Fleetwood Mac and the stories that inspired some of their greatest hits.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks: the most famous Fleetwood Mac romance

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are Fleetwood Mac’s most well-known couple. After meeting during their senior year of high school, the two attended San José State University before dropping out to pursue music full-time. 

The pair officially joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974, and almost broke up when they joined, but according to Nicks, they stayed together for the group. 

“We’d only been in Fleetwood Mac for a year and a half, and we were breaking up when we joined Fleetwood Mac. 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,” Nicks revealed in 2022. 

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

The two remained friendly and even reunited for the iconic 1997 performance of “Landslide,” but never fully rekindled their romantic relationship.  

Mick Fleetwood and Sara Recor: a romance that rocked friendships 

While Sara Recor might not have technically been in Fleetwood Mac, she was best friends with Nicks and was often around the band during recording sessions. This allowed Recor to begin seeing Fleetwood even though she was already married to someone else in 1978. 

The relationship caused a lot of trouble for Nicks, with the singer remembering, “I lost Mick, which wasn’t a big deal because that was a rocky relationship—but losing my friend Sara? That was a huge blow. Sara was banished from the studio by the rest of the band … No one was speaking, and I wouldn’t even look directly at Mick. That went on for months. And it was great fodder for writing! The songs poured out of us.”

Recor and Fleetwood would go on to marry in 1988, but the couple got divorced in 1995. 

Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood: a short-lived complicated affair

After ending things with Buckingham, Nicks entered into a very short and not-so-sweet affair with lead singer Mick Fleetwood, while recording the Rumours album. At the time, though, he had just remarried Jenny Boyd. The pair were said to be separated during Fleetwood’s dalliance with Nicks, though they reconciled briefly before their eventual divorce. 

“Never in a million years could you have told me that would happen. That was the biggest surprise. But Mick is definitely one of my great, great loves,” Nicks revealed years later. “But that really wasn’t good for anybody. Everybody was angry, because Mick was married to a wonderful girl and had two wonderful children. I was horrified. I loved these people. I loved his family. So it couldn’t possibly work out. And it didn’t. It just couldn’t.”

The two would eventually end their affair, but remain friends and band members for many years to come. 

John and Christine McVie: a marriage that couldn’t survive the band

Like many of their fellow bandmates, John and Christine McVie (formerly Peters) also entered into a torrid love affair during their time in Fleetwood Mac. 

They met in 1968 and married later that same year, but their marital bliss didn’t last long. 

“We were very happy for three years, and then the strain of me being in the same band started to take its toll,” Christine said before she died in 2022. “When you’re in the same band as somebody, you’re seeing them 24 hours a day, and you start to see an awful lot of the bad side. There’s a lot of drinking, and John is not the most pleasant of people when he’s drunk. Very belligerent. I was seeing more Hyde than Jekyll.”

Also during that time, Christine entered into an affair with Fleetwood Mac’s lighting director, Curry Grant.

“I was aware of it being irresponsible,” the keyboardist admitted. “But I had to do it for my sanity. It was either that or me ending up in a lunatic asylum. I still worry for him more than I would ever dare tell him. I still have a lot of love for John. Let’s face it, as far as I’m concerned, it was him that stopped me from loving him.” 

John and Christine got divorced in 1976, and neither of them remarried after that.