Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham Getting Divorced, Ending 21-Year Marriage

Lindsey Buckingham is going his own way. The 71-year-old Fleetwood Mac guitarist’s wife, Kristen Messner, filed for divorce from Buckingham after 21 years of marriage. According to TMZ, the documents were filed in L.A. County court, and it’s unclear at this time if the two have discussed any terms yet regarding their split.

The couple share three children together, Leelee, William, and Stella. While Leelee and William are adults, Stella is still 17 years old, so there may or may not be child custody terms to negotiate depending on how long everything takes to work out.

Buckingham and Messner, who is an interior designer and photographer, met in the late 1990s when she photographed him for the cover of one of his solo albums, Metro reports. They married in 2000, two years after welcoming their first child, William. Buckingham, who famously dated Stevie Nicks when they joined Fleetwood Mac — and wrote “Go Your Own Way” about their breakup — was 51 when he and Messner married. He previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “I had a lot of crazy girlfriends, and a lot of that was just an outgrowth of the lifestyle we were all leading.”

“I did see a lot of friends who were parents and spouses — back in previous decades — who weren’t really there and kind of screwed up their kids and were not there for their family situations. So I waited and I was lucky enough to meet someone relatively late… it’s worked out really well. I got all that other garbage out of the way,” he said at the time.

On the same day that news surfaced about the divorce, Buckingham announced a brand new single and album, as well as US tour dates later this year. “My new self-titled album is one I’ve been intending to get out for a couple of years now, but on more than one occasion, unforeseen circumstances necessitated a postponement of plans,” he said in the announcement. “Now that we’re back in gear, I’m thrilled to finally be sharing new music with my listeners!”