Lance Armstrong: Takes his relationship with his girlfriend to the next level, his past romantic encounters and his legal struggles: Read all of that here!
Lance Armstrong gets engaged to his girlfriend
American former professional road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong got engaged to his girlfriend of 10 years, Anna Hansen. 45-year-old Lance announced this engagement on his Instagram.
He posted a photo of Anna Hansen and him on a boat on Lake Austin, Texas, and wrote:
“She said….. YES!!!!”
The couples are seen gazing at each other with their arms wrapped around each other. Anna Hansen is showing off her diamond ring to the camera.
The couple met in July 2008 at a charity function and started dating. In December 2008, they announced that Anna Hansen was expecting. Anna Hansen has two children with Lance Armstrong; Max, 7, and Olivia, 6.
Lance’s previous affairs
Lance met editor and blogger Kristin Richard in June 1997 and tied the knot in May 1998. Lance Armstrong had undergone surgery and chemotherapy for testicular cancer. Before the surgery, he had banked his sperms.
These sperms were utilized for impregnating Kristin and they have 3 children together; son Luke and twin daughters Grace and Isabella. They divorced in 2003. The same year, Lance Armstrong started a relationship with country singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow.
In September 2005, they got engaged only to split in February 2006. Lance dated American fashion designer Tory Burch from March to October 2007. He met American actress Kate Hudson in the Bahamas in May 2008 and dated her for three months.
In July 2008, he met Anna Hansen. Their relationship rapidly progressed to the stage that in December 2008, Lance Armstrong announced that she was pregnant.
The child was born naturally though he was told by doctors that he could no longer father children due to his past surgery and chemotherapy. Both had another child, a daughter a year later.
In March 2017, speaking about his relationship with the country superstar Sheryl Crow, Lance had said:
“It was a good ride. She’s a great lady. Obviously it didn’t work out, but I think and I hope she’s happy.”
Explaining the reason for their separation, Lance said:
“She wanted marriage, she wanted children; and not that I didn’t want that, but I didn’t want that at that time because I had just gotten out of a marriage, I’d just had kids. Yet we’re up against her biological clock — that pressure is what cracked it.”
He added that it was difficult to continue since there are pressures of being a power couple.
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His dark side
Lance Armstrong was accused repeatedly of taking performance-enhancing drugs. He, however, denied them and boasted that he never had any positive urine tests in his career.
Dr. Michele Ferrari allegedly received secret payments from him to inject him with recombinant erythropoietin (rhEPO).
In 1999, when his urine test showed traces of corticosteroids, Lance Armstrong procured pre-dated medical certificates and prescriptions to show that he had used steroid creams for his saddle sores, which could explain the false-positive urine tests.
He even sued The Sunday Times (UK) for libel for an article accusing him of doping. Lance forced the tabloid into an out-of-court settlement.
One of Lance’s assistants Mike Anderson told the court on one occasion that he had seen a box of androstenone while cleaning the star’s bathroom in his Spain apartments.
Lance’s frozen urine samples were tested for EPO in 2005 and were found to contain the drug. Lance restated that he did not take any banned drugs, being aware of the shortcomings of the test.
Lance also had litigation ongoing with SCA Promotions over bonus money. The Company paid him the money as an out-of-court settlement but later in 2012 following the publication of the USADA (United States anti-doping agency) reasoned decision, made a fresh case of fraud against Lance to recover the money wrongly paid to him. The sports authorities banned Lance from participating in any sport for life.
Legal Feud
Lance Armstrong gained a lot of fame through the wrong means, resulting in the stripping of all his Tour de France titles.
In 2013 on the Oprah Winfrey show, Lance Armstrong admitted to doping. In February 2015, a panel ruled in favor of SCA.
Referring to Lance Armstrong, the panel stated:
“Perjury must never be profitable” and “it is almost certainly the most devious sustained deception ever perpetrated in world sporting history.”
Finding himself cornered, Lance issued a formal, public apology and agreed to pay SCA an undisclosed sum.
Soon after the SCA panel decided against him, Lance Armstrong pleaded guilty to a hit-and-run accident in December 2014. He had allegedly rammed into 2 cars in Aspen, Colorado.
Initially, his girlfriend Anna Hansen took the blame on her. The police however suspected that Lance Armstrong was the culprit and they interviewed a valet who also mentioned the fact that it was Lance who was behind the wheels.
Anna and Lance had mutually decided that Anna would take the blame to protect the family but their plan fell apart and Lance sent in his plea via email.
Besides reckless driving, the other two charges of speeding and failure were dropped against him.
Short Bio on Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He is the 1993 professional world champion. He won the Tour de France a record of seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005. The United States Anti-Doping Agency has imposed a lifetime ban on Armstrong from participating in cycling competitions. More Bio…
