Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie dies aged 79

Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie has died at age 79 after a short illness, her family has said.

The British singer-songwriter was behind hits including Little Lies, Everywhere, Don’t Stop, Say You Love Me and Songbird. 

She died peacefully at a hospital surrounded by family, a statement said. 

She had left Fleetwood Mac in 1998 – after 28 years but returned to the band in 2014. 

The family’s statement said, “we would like everyone to keep Christine in their hearts and remember the life of an incredible human being, and revered musician who was loved universally”.

Christine had married fellow band member John McVie and joined the group in the early 1970s.

The band’s beloved Rumours album was inspired by the break up of the McVies and the band’s other couple, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. The album is one of the biggest-selling albums – with more than 40 million copies sold worldwide. 

McVie was one of eight members of the band inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. 

In that same year, she retired, following the success of the album The Dance, she retired to Kent. But in 2013, she made a one-off appearance with the group at London’s o2 and returned to the band a year later. 

“It was amazing like I’d never left. I climbed back on there again and there they were, the same old faces on stage,” she told the Guardian newspaper at the time.