{"id":643422,"date":"2026-10-03T08:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T08:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/643422\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T08:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T08:06:11","slug":"singer-camille-osullivan-i-had-cancer-during-covid-i-was-so-scared-it-was-caught-by-chance-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/643422\/","title":{"rendered":"Singer Camille O\u2019Sullivan: \u2018I had cancer during Covid. I was so scared. It was caught by chance\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camille O\u2019Sullivan gestures towards the wall of bookshelves on the first-floor landing in her magnificent Georgian Dublin<\/a> home overlooking the Grand Canal. \u201cLook here,\u201d she beckons with a grin. She catches hold of the bookshelf and gently pushes. A door swings inward on silent hinges to reveal a hidden room filled with Narnia-like snow-covered pine trees and cut-outs from The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy, Tin Man and Scarecrow, and even the Wicked Witch lurking at the back. <\/p>\n

\u201cCome with me, and you\u2019ll see, a world of pure imagination,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan sings, smiling at The Irish Times photographer\u2019s surprised face. \u201cI bought the cut-outs from abroad. I adore that film.\u201d<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to be schooled in The Wizard of Oz to recognise there\u2019s something magical about O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s home, a labour of love for the singer and actor since she bought the property with her partner, actor Aidan Gillen<\/a>, in 2015, not long after they became a couple.<\/p>\n

Resplendent over four storeys, with high ceilings, lavish cornicing and stained glass, the house \u2013 which has been renovated over a decade \u2013 doubles as an art piece: full of whimsical touches, from the old-fashioned bell-pull at the front door to the row of cocktail glasses lining the kitchen wall (\u201cWe have parties,\u201d she confirms) and the jukebox in the basement with Gillen\u2019s handpicked tunes, from Public Enemy to Microdisney.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve arrived at the house in time for O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s photo shoot for the magazine, which involves a joyful ramble through the many floors as she strikes poses, adapts outfits, suggests perches and tries out the swing in her daughter\u2019s room (Leila is her 13-year-old daughter with her former partner, Waterboys founder Mike Scott). <\/p>\n

Neither Leila nor Gillen are here today \u2013 Gillen, best known for his roles in Game of Thrones, Love\/Hate and The Wire, is away filming for Young Sherlock \u2013 but their spaniel Bonnie pants happily on the new green sofa in the front room, clutching a furry toy, as Goo Goo the cat stalks past on the kitchen table.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a colourful mise-en-scene, and appropriate for the ageless, sprite-like O\u2019Sullivan<\/a>, a former architect (their home, which she designed in collaboration with Elizabeth Burns Architects, won the 2025 Conservation Award at the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland Awards) and one of Ireland\u2019s most intriguing interpretative artists. O\u2019Sullivan is famed for her chameleon-like ability to tunnel into the heart of a song, whether a lament from Nick Cave, a spicy rocker from Kirsty MacColl or an operatic show-stopper from David Bowie. Today she\u2019s wearing vivid green eyeshadow and a bright green dress. The vibe is half-vamp, half-children\u2019s TV presenter, a commingling of opposites that\u2019s very Camille O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n

As she offers coffees, teas and dark chocolate, she confesses she\u2019s feeling a bit rattly, not yet \u201cgrounded\u201d. She flew in from Luton airport last night. This morning she was frantically cleaning the kitchen before our arrival. She\u2019s talking a lot, which is her way, she explains, of coping with nerves. She and Gillen are both shy, she says, though they display it differently. \u201cHe is shy, and I am shy, but I talk like a mad one. We\u2019re very similar, but where I\u2019m emotional, he is more defined in what he does. So it seems to fit well, although I\u2019m sure I drive him mad.\u201d <\/p>\n

Growing up in Passage West in Cork, the London-born daughter of a French painter mother and a rally-car-driving Irish father, the young Camille was so timid at times she used to squeeze her eyes shut to try to see less, so the world would feel less scary. <\/p>\n

\"CamilleCamille O\u2019Sullivan: ‘The less you think about yourself, the better.’ Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Her decision to go on stage only came after a serious car crash when she was 25, which led her to ditch her safer career in architecture and start singing cabaret in coffee houses in Dublin. Sometimes she wishes she were more aloof. \u201cI feel ashamed that I talk so much,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I\u2019m fighting against myself to be more reserved, and then I go: don\u2019t let that part of your spirit go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently she got an ADHD<\/a> diagnosis, and it helped explain a lot of her inner tussle, her social anxiety and her struggles with tasks that, to others, may seem effortless. Sometimes opening an email can be hard. \u201cI\u2019ve lost major films because of it,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m a big fan of Gilbert O\u2019Sullivan, I met him once on a train. He emailed and I couldn\u2019t open it for six years. My sister opened it for me. I\u2019m that scared of opening stuff.\u201d <\/p>\n

She always had little quirks, like staying up late drawing, fixating on new passions or the compulsive need for chatter. But she\u2019d grown used to making light of it. \u201cCork, where I\u2019m from, when they talk rubbish, I go, \u2018That\u2019s me, I talk like that\u2019. When I got the ADHD diagnosis, I thought, \u2018Shit, I thought it was just being from Cork, this talking\u2019. My friend Victoria Mary Clarke, Shane\u2019s [MacGowan] wife, said, \u2018I could have told you that for free. You didn\u2019t have to pay for it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the things it makes sense of, she says, is what her father calls her \u201csuperpower\u201d: her capacity for raw vulnerability in her live performances. On stage, O\u2019Sullivan channels her intense nervousness with remarkable force, transforming into a different entity, a person even she doesn\u2019t always recognise. She is uninhibited, full-bodied and focused. \u201cWhen I do a show, I don\u2019t believe in just singing nicely. It\u2019s bringing every aspect of yourself,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes I don\u2019t even know what happens on stage until I wake up the next day and go, \u2018Jesus Christ, I can\u2019t believe I did that\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the early years, people sometimes confused her act with burlesque (\u201cMy mom would say, \u2018Did you wear the fishnets? That\u2019s why they think you\u2019re a stripper\u2019,\u201d she says, mimicking her French accent). In truth, O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s performances resist easy definitions. She might be wearing fishnet tights and red lipstick, but she\u2019s as likely to casually riff between songs about midlife weight gain or late-night internet purchases as to kick her heels in the air and play the coquette. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s shape-shifting,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can become all these different things. You have an excuse to be angry, to be fierce.\u201d Beloved by Graham Norton (\u201cShe\u2019s astonishing\u201d, he has said), she has performed everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to the Royal Albert Hall. She was named one of the best 25 acts to ever appear on Jools Holland by The Telegraph in 2018, although her innate self-deprecation means she struggles to believe praise. <\/p>\n

\"CamilleCamille O\u2019Sullivan at home in Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

She expects a lot of herself, off stage and on. \u201cIt can be like selling your soul to the devil sometimes because that much feeling on stage can hurt you,\u201d she says. \u201cIt costs too much. It hurts too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five years ago, O\u2019Sullivan considered giving up the stage, in part because she didn\u2019t know if she was physically or mentally able any more. In a routine health check, something was found. She hasn\u2019t really talked about it before. \u201cI had cancer during Covid,\u201d she says. \u201cI was so scared. It was caught by chance. The doctors had to ring my parents because I wasn\u2019t answering [the phone]. Then I had another five months I had to wait, so within that time you\u2019re going, \u2018How bad is this?\u2019 When you\u2019re a mum, you\u2019re like, \u2018Please, Lord\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Living with breast cancer: \u2018I\u2019ve possibly had one of the best years of my life. I\u2019ve got rid of anything that didn\u2019t matter\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

After a diagnosis of womb cancer, she had an operation and a full hysterectomy, and her body was hit hard. \u201cI got long Covid. I got shingles in my eye and post-herpetic neuralgia.\u201d The fatigue drained her. \u201cI would sometimes have to sleep for three or four days. It was terrible as a performer. Steroids got me on stage.\u201d For her critically acclaimed take on Edith Piaf at the Gate Theatre in Dublin in 2022, the effects of her treatment meant she struggled to learn her lines. \u201cI couldn\u2019t concentrate because I had nausea. If I was in bed, I\u2019d have to ring Aidan and say, \u2018Could you bring me my medication?\u2019 because I couldn\u2019t get up.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a mark of O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s resilience as a person and performer that even when talking about those times, she\u2019s able to locate the dark humour in some of the situations she found herself in. <\/p>\n

For Piaf, she found a remedy to help with the headaches she was experiencing daily: Botox. The nerve blocker stopped the pain, but came with side effects. \u201cMy eyebrow went up because your woman wasn\u2019t great at the f**king Botox,\u201d she laughs. \u201cFor the whole of Covid I had a raised eyebrow. You look quizzical. I\u2019d two stone weight on, I looked like shit. I used to cry every night looking at myself on stage. It was a raised eyebrow for three months. People were like, \u2018What happened to her?\u2019 Aidan was like, \u2018What do you want?\u2019 I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t want anything!\u2019 But I was desperate. I would have taken anything.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cancer free since her treatment, she wants young women to know her story so they keep a watchful eye on themselves. \u201cIf you\u2019re getting irregular periods or no blood, you\u2019ve got to get checked. You have to go further than a smear test. I would tell every girl that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CamilleCamille O\u2019Sullivan: ‘The show is about embracing the madness of life. It will be hymnal, spiritual.’
\nPhotograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s home contains few mirrors or pictures of herself. \u201cNeither of us like to have images in the house,\u201d she says. \u201cAs you get older, you\u2019re like, \u2018Take them down, take them down\u2019. The less you think about yourself, the better. The old pictures remind you you don\u2019t look like that. The new ones, you\u2019re, like, horrified. Ageing is really hard for women.\u201d<\/p>\n

After her hysterectomy, she went into immediate menopause, an experience that was shocking and disorientating. \u201cThe anger thing happens. The crying thing happens. The f**king \u2018I don\u2019t know what my name is\u2019 thing happens. And what the f**k\u2019s going on with my stomach? Everything changed overnight. I was distressed and depressed. My friends were like, \u2018Christ, we\u2019ve lost her\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

She decided to take HRT against medical advice. \u201cI am scared, but I get checked twice a year,\u201d she says. \u201cI went back to my doctors and said, \u2018I\u2019ve got to come clean, I\u2019m on HRT \u2019, and one of them said, \u2018Camille, I know this is my speciality, and I\u2019m not supposed to prescribe this, but [with] you, if you don\u2019t take it, you\u2019re going to have these issues which are worse\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Now she finds ways to poke fun at her stage in life. \u201cI give the finger to menopause ads and send pictures to my friends,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have to grow old disgracefully and laugh at ourselves. Because if we don\u2019t laugh, we are going to go down the rabbit hole. The Irish are good at laughing at bad situations. And if we want to have sparkly pants and pink hair, let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pink hair may or may not feature in her new show, bracingly titled The Art of Falling Apart, which she will perform at the Olympia in November. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a totally new creation,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s still being created. I\u2019ve thought of coming on with white hair, like an old woman, and then rolling into rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. The show is about embracing the madness of life. It will be hymnal, spiritual. Singing to people we\u2019ve lost, singing to the people we want to become. To dance like nobody\u2019s watching, to laugh out loud, to cry, to do the things you\u2019re scared of. There will be Jacques Brel, Nick Cave; there will definitely be David Bowie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CamilleCamille O\u2019Sullivan: ‘I love singing the songs. I\u2019m petrified of the gigs coming, but it is joyful, even if I\u2019m scared.’
\nPhotograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a show that will serve, she says, as a cousin of her recent show Loveletter, in which O\u2019Sullivan celebrated many of the friends and icons that the arts world has lost in recent years, including Shane MacGowan and Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor. \u201cThese incredible chieftains,\u201d she says. \u201cShane, Sin\u00e9ad, Christy [Dignam], Moya [Brennan] and Glen [Hansard]. I can\u2019t believe Glen. With Glen, he\u2019s so alive and present and of our age. You\u2019d think he\u2019s around the corner.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Glen Hansard music to feature in new stage production of Waking Ned DevineOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cSin\u00e9ad sang so authentically \u2013 she sang as if her life depended on it \u2013 but she was the most fragile. I used to run away from Shane because I was scared he\u2019d tell me that was shit what we did [she performed with a tribute with others at MacGowan\u2019s 60th birthday concert in 2018]. I loved their realness. They were so different offstage, like little kids. They always say performers are people who are children who haven\u2019t grown up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last summer, O\u2019Sullivan was one of the final guests to be interviewed by Se\u00e1n Rocks<\/a>, just days before the RT\u00c9 Arena broadcaster died. She and her childhood friend, the playwright and mother and baby home survivor Noelle Brown, had been invited on to Arena to discuss In Plain Sight, a theatre piece which tackled the subject of Ireland\u2019s mother and baby homes at Roscrea, Castlepollard and Bessborough through an on-site performance at the Sacred Heart of Mary Convent in Roscrea. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t even explain it to a young person now, that a mother and child would be separated from each other,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Rocks asked skilful, knowledgeable questions of the pair, as was his way. \u201cI\u2019d known him all through the years. So clever. He always knew what to ask. Another chieftain. And such a great actor too.\u201d She went to Rocks\u2019 funeral in Monaghan with Gillen. At Glen Hansard\u2019s funeral more recently, she recalls looking around and thinking: \u201cWho\u2019s next?\u201d<\/p>\n

The great losses the arts community has suffered in recent years are a reminder to live brightly while you can, a mantra O\u2019Sullivan took to heart after the car crash in 1999 and again after her recent health battles. \u201cLive your life like every day matters,\u201d she says. \u201cEverybody has a shyness, and everybody has a thing. So you become a little more Buddhist. As you get older, you get wiser in the sense that you realise, \u2018Oh God, nobody\u2019s thinking about me\u2019. They were always thinking about themselves, wondering what people were thinking about them. <\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the most painful things, the thought that stayed with me is, \u2018Aren\u2019t we so lucky, even if we get fat and we don\u2019t look good, that we still are alive, and we can get a dog and learn how to hula hoop or be childlike\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter how afraid O\u2019Sullivan might be of the stage, she understands that performing is a vocation and a gift. \u201cI was talking to someone recently for therapy. She said, \u2018Why do you put yourself down? You are blessed. In your lifetime you have found something. Many people never know what they want.\u2019 I love singing the songs. I\u2019m petrified of the gigs coming, but it is joyful, even if I\u2019m scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

She takes inspiration from one of her heroes, Jacques Brel. \u201cI got great confidence from him because he gave up performing live because he was so scared. He used to vomit before every show. And he was the best singer.\u201d His example has shown O\u2019Sullivan that nerves are no indicator of quality. And she can wield her nerves, worries and troubles to channel her best performances. Pain can even be a boon. \u201cWhen your life is painful is when you sing best,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019re in the eye of the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s pain is not the sum of her; far from it. She has many different sides to her, and it feels appropriate that by the time the afternoon light has started to fade, O\u2019Sullivan is offering \u2013 with a mischievous glint in her eye \u2013 a margarita to replace my herbal tea. Whether she and Aidan are boating on the Shannon, hosting Halloween parties or cheering on Leila for her school musical (\u201cShe sings better than me\u201d), vivacity is part of her lifeblood. She has a favourite phrase from Brel: \u201cLet\u2019s laugh, let\u2019s dance, let\u2019s drink until they put me in a hole in the ground.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"TinyTiny Wizard of Oz figurines on the front room windowsill face out on to the street where the couple\u2019s vintage Jaguars are parked.
\nPhotograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Leaving the house, I pass a set of tiny Wizard of Oz figurines on the front room windowsill, which face out on to the street where the couple\u2019s vintage Jaguars are parked. <\/p>\n

In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy lives her life in grey in Kansas until she steps into technicolour. O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s life seems a little like that \u2013 sometimes there are grey shades and hard times, but she will find a way to bring back the brightness and the fun. She will insist on it. As a line she loves from Leonard Cohen runs: \u201cThere is a crack in everything, that\u2019s how the light gets in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camille O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s new show The Art of Falling Apart is at the 3Olympia Theatre on Saturday, November 21st. The special guest is David Bowie\u2019s guitarist Earl Slick. Loveletter is at Monroes, Galway, Oct 8th, and St. Luke\u2019s, Cork, Oct 10th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Camille O\u2019Sullivan gestures towards the wall of bookshelves on the first-floor landing in her magnificent Georgian Dublin home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2121,187874,258,46,687,93,109247,61,60,709,12359,6283],"class_list":["post-643422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-womens-health","tag-camille-o-sullivan","tag-cancer","tag-cork","tag-david-bowie","tag-entertainment","tag-glen-hansard","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-magazine","tag-menopause","tag-shane-macgowan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}