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\nFormer Fleetwood Mac bandmates Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham began dating in 1972 before calling it quits four years laterThey continued performing together for years, and their post-breakup performances have become viral hitsOn July 17, the exes shared seemingly coordinated Instagram posts, leading fans to speculate about a potential reunion<\/p>\n
There are few relationships that go down in history like Stevie Nicks<\/a> and Lindsey Buckingham<\/a>‘s.\n<\/p>\n After meeting in high school, the former Fleetwood Mac<\/a> bandmates began dating in 1972 before splitting four years later. But just as Nicks and Buckingham’s relationship was coming apart, Fleetwood Mac was rising to fame. So, for years to come, the pair continued to make music and perform together as exes, alongside bandmates Mick Fleetwood<\/a>, John McVie and the late Christine McVie<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n Decades later, Nicks and Buckingham’s romance and post-breakup interactions have become a public fascination tied to several iconic performances \u2014 ones that even inspired the book-turned-television series Daisy Jones & the Six<\/a>, loosely based on Fleetwood Mac.\n<\/p>\n In 2018, the pair had a public fallout when Buckingham was kicked out of the band and placed the blame on Nicks<\/a>. While fans have hoped for a reunion of the core group (minus Christine, who died<\/a> in 2022), Buckingham, now married to Kristen Messner<\/a>, told PEOPLE that he would have to reconcile with Nicks in order for that to happen.\n<\/p>\n “You have to forgive,” he said. “You have to let things go<\/a> and move on and just remember that we’re all doing the best we can.”\n<\/p>\n On July 17, the pair shared seemingly coordinated Instagram posts<\/a> that featured two halves of a phrase from their 1973 song “Frozen Love,” leaving fans wondering if the pair were teasing some kind of reunion after all.<\/p>\n So, what happened between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham? From joining Fleetwood Mac as a couple to the breakup anthem that’s been heard around the world, here’s a look back at Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s relationship.\n<\/p>\n Nicks and Buckingham met in high school <\/p>\n Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac at the premiere party of “The Rolling Stone Covers” exhibition tour.<\/p>\n Hulton Archive via Getty<\/p>\n Nicks and Buckingham first met as students at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, Calif. Nicks, who was in her senior year, soon joined Buckingham’s psychedelic rock band, Fritz.\n<\/p>\n The pair went on to attend San Jos\u00e9 State University, but they both eventually dropped out to chase their music dreams. Fritz later opened for artists like Jimi Hendrix<\/a> and Janis Joplin<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n They began dating after their band, Fritz, broke up <\/p>\n Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham perform live onstage.<\/p>\n Richard E. Aaron\/Redferns<\/p>\n In 1972, Nicks and Buckingham sparked a romance when Fritz disbanded.\n<\/p>\n As Stephen Davis recalled in his biography, Gold Dust Woman, Nicks later said that she wasn’t sure if they would have “become a couple” if it wasn’t for them “leaving the band,” per the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. “It kind of pushed us together.”\n<\/p>\n The couple then moved to Los Angeles and released a joint album, Buckingham Nicks, in 1973. Simultaneously, their relationship was also facing some troubles.\n<\/p>\n “When we moved, it was lonely. I didn\u2019t have any girlfriends. And I was the one who worked,” Nicks told Billboard<\/a> in September 2014. “I had to be a waitress, and a cleaning lady, in order to support us \u2014 because Lindsey didn\u2019t want to play four sets at Chuck\u2019s Steakhouse, where we could\u2019ve made $500 a week. To him, that was selling out. He wanted to play original music, so I went along with that.”<\/p>\n They joined Fleetwood Mac together in 1974 <\/p>\n John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham of the rock group Fleetwood Mac pose for a portrait in 1975. On Dec. 13, 1974, Fleetwood asked Buckingham to join his band. Though he agreed, there was a catch: there had to be a spot for Nicks in the group, too.\n<\/p>\n Despite their troubles, the pair tried to put on a united front for the sake of the band’s success.\n<\/p>\n “When we joined Fleetwood Mac, I said, ‘OK, this is what we’ve been working for since 1968. And so Lindsey, you and I have to sew this relationship back up. We have too much to lose here,’ ” Nicks told Billboard. “We need to put our problems behind us. Maybe we\u2019re not going to have any more problems, because we\u2019re finally going to have some money. And I won\u2019t have to be a waitress.”\n<\/p>\n Nicks called their 1976 breakup a “living nightmare” <\/p>\n Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac.<\/p>\n Jeff Kravitz\/FilmMagic<\/p>\n Nicks told Billboard that upon joining Fleetwood Mac, the pair put their relationship “back together.”\n<\/p>\n “We weren\u2019t fighting about money, we had a really nice place, and we were going to work with these hysterically funny English people every day, making great music,” she said.\n<\/p>\n Nicks continued, “It was OK for a while, until it wasn\u2019t,” adding that their relationship “blew up” by the end of 1976.\n<\/p>\n In 1990, Nicks told Australia’s\u00a0Woman’s Own<\/a> that their breakup was a “living nightmare.”\n<\/p>\n “He and I were about as compatible as a boa constrictor and a rat.”\n<\/p>\n Their split came right before the band recorded their second album, Rumours.\n<\/p>\n During a 2005 conversation with Blender, Buckingham recalled he and Nicks went “through this elaborate exercise of denial,\u00a0keeping our personal feelings<\/a>\u00a0in one corner of the room while trying to be professional in the other” during the recording process.\n<\/p>\n Nicks wrote “Silver Springs” about their breakup <\/p>\n Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham perform as Fleetwood Mac is inducted into Rock & Roll’s Hall of Fame on Jan. 12, 1998, in New York.<\/p>\n Bruce Gilbert\/Newsday RM via Getty<\/p>\n While some celebrities keep their breakups out of the spotlight, Nicks and Buckingham’s was on full display as it inspired the band’s 1977 hit “Silver Springs.”\n<\/p>\n During an October 2023 conversation with PEOPLE, Nicks recalled the moment Fleetwood and Buckingham told her the track had been cut from 1977’s Rumours.\n<\/p>\n \u201cDo you mean \u2018Silver Springs,\u2019 probably the best song I’ve ever written<\/a>?\u201d she recalled saying to the pair. \u201cAnd they’re like, \u2018Well, yeah. Let’s move on with that.’ ”\n<\/p>\n The track was not removed entirely, but rather put on the B-side of the album’s first single.<\/p>\n According to Rolling Stone<\/a>, it was a disagreement with Fleetwood over the rights to “Silver Springs” that ultimately led her to leave the group in 1990.\n<\/p>\n But in 1997, the band’s core five reunited for a live album, The Dance, and an accompanying tour. The gut-wrenching performance brought newfound success to the track, which earned a Grammy nomination at the time.\n<\/p>\n While performing “Silver Springs” during\u00a0The Dance tour, Nicks faced away from the crowd and directly at Buckingham, looking directly into his eyes as she sang the song’s vengeful chorus: \u201cI’ll follow you down ’til the sound of my voice will haunt you \/ Give me just a chance \/ You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you.”\n<\/p>\n Years later, the viral clip has become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon. In March 2023, Buckingham himself acknowledged the track’s newfound popularity on TikTok<\/a>, sharing a\u00a0video\u00a0of himself performing its guitar solo, captioned, \u201cI heard we\u2019re talking about that \u201997 \u2018Silver Springs\u2019 again.”<\/p>\n Buckingham claimed Nicks was the reason he was fired from the band in 2018 <\/p>\n John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac pose onstage during NBC’s ‘Today’ on Oct. 9, 2014, in New York City.<\/p>\n D Dipasupil\/FilmMagic<\/p>\n In 2018, Buckingham was kicked out of Fleetwood Mac. At the time, many people speculated that it was Buckingham’s behavior following an in-group disagreement after a performance at MusiCares that led to his exit, while he maintains he asked for three months to promote his solo album.\n<\/p>\n But in a September 2021 interview with PEOPLE, Buckingham said his removal from the group was “all Stevie’s doing.”\n<\/p>\n “Stevie basically gave the band an ultimatum that either I had to go or she would go. It would be like [Mick] Jagger<\/a> saying, “Well, either Keith [Richards]<\/a> has to go or I’m going to go.’ ”\n<\/p>\n In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, Nicks called Buckingham’s take “revisionist history.”\n<\/p>\n “I did not demand he be fired,” she said. “Frankly, I fired myself. I proactively removed myself from the band and a situation I considered to be toxic to my well-being. I was done. If the band went on without me, so be it.”\n<\/p>\n Nicks and Buckingham posted seemingly coordinated Instagram messages in July 2025 <\/p>\n Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac attend MusiCares Person of the Year on Jan. 26, 2018, in New York City.<\/p>\n Steve Granitz\/Getty<\/p>\n On July 17, Nicks and Buckingham posted what seemed to be coordinated Instagram posts that included the lyrics from their 1973 Buckingham Nicks song “Frozen Love.”\n<\/p>\n Nicks posted<\/a> the handwritten words “and if you go forward…,” then Buckingham shared an image<\/a> with the words “I’ll follow you there.”\n<\/p>\n Just days before their Instagram posts, Fleetwood posted a video<\/a> of himself listening to “Frozen Love,” captioned, “Magic then, magic now,” which was also shared to the band’s official profile.\n<\/p>\n Fans began speculating what all of the cryptic posts might signal, with some social media users suggesting the possibility of the pair remastering and releasing their 1973 album.<\/p>\n “WHY DID THE FLEETWOOD MAC INSTA JUST POST MICK LISTENING TO FROZEN LOVE???? IS BUCKINGHAM NICKS FINALLY GETTING REMASTERED???”\u00a0one fan wrote on X<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n
\nMichael Ochs Archives\/Getty<\/p>\n