For a time, the two artists also had a romantic partnership, but this broke up before the birth of the Eurythmics. Stewart told Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times (August 2, 1986): "Most couples get famous and then break up. But we broke up and then got famous. Our first reaction was that it was impossible - to break up and still make music together. But the experience made us stronger. We had this goal - and we were determined not to let anything get in its way".
Lennox commented to Hilburn: "I met Dave when I was 22, 23. By the time the Eurythmics started, I was about 26, 27 and I think I needed to find myself. I had lived through a lot of other people and through Dave, and I wanted to sort of break away from that. But I knew creatively I didn't want to work with anybody else except Dave. So there was this strange tension - the pain of the breakup and the excitement of working together on the music. In some ways, that tension has never really gone away. There is always something that brings an edge to what we do."