Crow told Armstrong to stay away

Sheryl Crow told her ex-fiancé Lance Armstrong to support her from a distance when she was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.

The All I Wanna Do singer, 44, learned she had the illness just two weeks after the couple ended their engagement.

Crow tells Vanity Fair magazine: "It was difficult, you know. I know he wanted to be there. I do think about Lance every day. And I think about his kids every day."

Cycling champion and cancer survivor Armstrong was driving from California to Oregon when his ex phoned to break the bad news.

He says: "When I got that news, I can't even describe it. It was the cruellest twist. I actually turned around to make the drive to LA. We talked along the way and she said: 'You know, I just don't think that's a great idea.'

"(Sheryl told me) it would be hard on her in trying to manage the break up and the diagnosis. And I totally understood."