While Stevie Nicks might have forced Fleetwood Mac to side with her in the 2017 ousting of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, she put that behind her when she reached out to him after learning of his heart attack in the winter of 2019.

Buckingham's ugly split with Fleetwood Mac was a "long time coming," according to Nicks, who was prompted to give the band a him-or-me ultimatum after its MusiCares Person of the Year honors in 2017.

Shortly after resolving a lawsuit with Fleetwood Mac over his firing, Buckingham suffered a heart attack. His vocal cords were damaged during doctors' efforts to save his life, and the future of his career was left in doubt. He finally performed again this past August.

Despite the well-known acrimony between the former couple and Nicks having not spoken to Buckingham in a "couple of years," Nicks still reached out to him after his ordeal, she revealed in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times.

"You better take care of yourself," she said she wrote to him. "You better take it easy and you better do everything they tell you and get your voice back and feel the grace that you have made it through this."

Nicks and Buckingham began dating in 1968 and broke up in 1976, a few years after they joined Fleetwood Mac together. Despite the relationship, Nicks and Buckingham cohabitated in Fleetwood Mac for the better part of the next 40 years.

She tells the L.A. Times that she always returned to Fleetwood Mac hoping "things would get better," but her hopes were dashed every time. She says she was increasingly sad around Fleetwood Mac and that there was indeed a breaking point for her at the MusiCares honors.

“I just felt like a dying flower all the time,” she says. “I stayed with him from 1968 until that night. It’s a long time. And I really could hear my parents — I could hear my mom saying, ‘Are you really gonna do this for the rest of your life?’ And I could hear my dad saying in his very pragmatic way — because my dad really liked Lindsey —‘I think it’s time for you and Lindsey to get a divorce.’ It’s a very unfortunate thing. It makes me very, very sad.”

Nicks has a new single, "Show Them the Way," coming on October 9. A concert movie will hit theaters later in the month.

Photo: Getty Images

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Maria Milito