Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie on why she was ‘unlucky’ in love: ‘It’s been a real drag’

The touring life of Fleetwood Mac took its toll on Christine McVie’s two marriages
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Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, who grew up in the Bearwood area of Smethwick, passed away at the age of 79 after a short illness. She is one of the most famous entertainers to come out of the West Midlands.

She had opened up about her love life before her death and said that she had been unlucky in love. The touring life of a band took its toll on her two marriages.

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She had been married to bandmate John McVie and later to songwriter Eddy Quintela. Both of her marriages ended in divorce. However, there is more to her story than just the two people she was married to.

Christine and Spencer Davis

After sneaking away to London from her strict parents in Birmingham, she visited every talent agency possible, she told Rolling Stone. However, her parents found her eventually and she was sent to Birmingham Art College in Moseley. While there, she joined a folk club.

They would meet every week above a pub somewhere and one night “this devastatingly handsome man, who was from Birmingham University” walked in. It was Spencer Davis.

“I just fell in love with Spence. I swore I would get thin and go out with him,” she said.

Christine McVie of rock band Fleetwood Mac, UK, 18th January 1969 (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)Christine McVie of rock band Fleetwood Mac, UK, 18th January 1969 (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Christine McVie of rock band Fleetwood Mac, UK, 18th January 1969 (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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She achieved that goal and they began singing together but their collaboation was “more musical than illicit.” She followed the Spencer Davis Group for some time before she met Fleetwood Mac and started working with them.

Christine and John

She joined Fleetwood Mac after marrying one of the members. The band was formed in London in 1967 and Christine joined in 1970 after marrying its bass guitarist John McVie in 1968.

They were married for six years and in the middle of a tour, they went their separate ways.

“We were very happy. Very happy for probably three years and then the strain of me being in the same band as him started to take its toll. When you’re in the same band as somebody, you’re seeing them almost more than 24 hours a day.

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“You start to see an awful lot of the bad side ’cause touring is no easy thing. There’s a lot of drinking . . . John is not the most pleasant of people when he’s drunk. Very belligerent. I was seeing more Hyde than Jekyll.

“I broke up with John in the middle of a tour. I was aware of it being rather irresponsible. I had to do it for my sanity. It was either that or me ending up in a lunatic asylum,” she said.

(L-R)  John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac  (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)(L-R)  John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac  (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)
(L-R) John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

They remained friends and continued to work together.

Christine and Eddy Quintela

Eddy and Christine composed many songs between 1987 and 1997. They were married for 17-years before divorcing in 2003. However, they continued to collaborate on her solo albums, according to FleetwoodMacNews. They had kept their relationship private and not a lot is known about their time together.

However, Christine said years later: “I’ve been very, very unlucky in love. It’s been a real drag.”

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In the book Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters, she said: “I’ve had my good times. No, both Stevie [Nicks] and I, we were married to Fleetwood Mac. That was what we did and it was a harsh marriage. During those years there was no time for anything else and we used to moan about how we were married to the band. During our thirties and forties that is what we did. There was no time for relationships of our own.”

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