Crystal loses boyfriend, along with “American Idol” title

May 27, 2010 17:47 EDT
American Idol | boyfriend | Crystal Bowersox | Lee DeWyze Loser. Double Loser.Bowersox2
Turns out Crystal Bowersox, the “American Idol” season front-runner, lost more than the coveted title this week.
On the morning of Tuesday night’s performance finale, Bowersox and her boyfriend split up and he headed back to their Toledo, Ohio hometown as she prepared for the biggest night of her life.
Just a month ago, Bowersox had dedicated Shania Twain’s marriage-themed song “No-One Needs to Know” on the show to her sweetheart, adding that she was hoping “he’ll man up one of these days”.
“Big Tony…he went home. He wasn’t cool with the lifestyle,” Bowersox told “Idol” host Ryan Seacrest on his L.A radio show on Thursday “I didn’t break up with him…it was a mutual thing.”
“It’s cool though, we’re both logical, grown adults,” the dreadlocked single mom added. “He’s a small town guy and that’s fine. I’m a small town girl, but I want this. I want this more than anything, this career, this lifestyle. I didn’t think he was up for it…he didn’t think he was up for it.”
The split didn’t seem to have affected Crystal’s performance . “Idol” judges felt she out-classed rival Lee DeWyze with her three songs on Tuesday, and the 24 year-old Bowersox told Seacrest her boyfriend’s departure “set that fire to my belly”.
If Bowersox felt cheated at Wednesday’s result after having been tipped for weeks to win the contest, she was hiding it well.
“I knew Lee was going to win and people seem to be surprised by that, but I just had a feeling. As I said before, I couldn’t be happier for him. He deserves every minute of this,” she told reporters after Wednesday’s show.
” I just had this strange sense of peace and calm. I’ve been that way through the whole season if you haven’t noticed, I’m just mellow. And I was willing and ready and happy for whatever the outcome was. We both win. It’s not winner, loser. It’s winner, non-winner, or whatever you want to call it. But both of us are going to have very successful careers and we’re going to be friends for a long time.”
Asked what she had learned from being on “Idol”, the famously homespun Bowersox laughed and said; “That I can walk in heels!”
Should Crystal feel cheated? And why did America choose another white, male, guitar-player as its “Idol” for the third year in a row