My cancer scare, by Robshaw’s girlfriend
Despite a cancer scare and gossip about her private life, Camilla Kerslake – the half-Welsh girlfriend of England’s rugby captain – is in fighting spirit, finds Bryony Gordon
Camilla Kerslake, girlfriend of England rugby captain Chris Robshaw, has spoken of her shock at finding a lump on her breast. Tests established it was not cancerous, but she faces a lifetime of monitoring. She said: “I just feel grateful.”
Within 10 minutes of meeting Camilla Kerslake, we have exchanged pleasantries, talked property prices, discussed commutes and fondled each other’s breasts.
George Osborne, who was photographed last week gazing adoringly at the classical singer, would no doubt love to be in my shoes. (When I mention this picture, she pulls a face and says, “Yeah, that was an odd situation, wasn’t it? We’d never met, but were asked to be in a picture together, so that was definitely a nervous laugh. That was a laugh that awkwardness promoted.”)
But enough of the Chancellor, and more of the 27-year-old’s breasts. You will be pleased to learn that my fondling of them is not gratuitous, and all for a good cause – she is showing me how to examine the chest for lumps.
“So if you take two fingers and push down there,” she says, plunging my hand in to her right boob, “you can feel there’s a lump. But if you put them there” – and here she plunges my hand in to her left boob – “there isn’t one.”
She found the lump last year when her boyfriend, the England rugby captain Chris Robshaw, took her on a surprise break to Brussels. She was in the bath when she idled across it. A battery of tests at the Royal Marsden established that it wasn’t cancerous, but she is constantly monitored. “I have to go for an ultrasound whenever it changes or feels sore. I just feel grateful that we are on it, and that if anything happens it will be dealt with speedily.”
The vigilance is not at all surprising when you learn that her mother Deborah, a psychotherapist, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. Though fully recovered, the experience is never far from Camilla’s mind. After the diagnosis, she set up the Beat Breast Cancer Choir for sufferers of the illness, and today she works closely with the charity Breast Cancer Now.
Kerslake says that, like the late Jackie Collins, her mother kept her diagnosis a secret. “She told me, my dad and her three best friends, and that was it. I think dealing with other people’s grief when you’re diagnosed can be very difficult. For my family, the best thing was to get through it with humour. So I’d turn up wearing something saucy and Mum would say, ‘Great boobs… when they’re not trying to kill you.’
“And Mum jokes that she’s had a complete body MOT in the process, which I think she is actually quite pleased about. They took fat from her tummy to give her a new breast, and then the other boob wasn’t quite as big, so they lipo-ed her thighs and [used the fat from that to] put it in to her other one. So she’s got a flat stomach, slimmer thighs and a fantastic, pert chest. Dad jokes that he doesn’t need to have a mid-life crisis.”
Humour, you see, is important to the Kerslakes. “It’s the only way you can get through stuff like that. Doom and gloom isn’t conducive to getting better.”
Camilla Kerslake has always been a no-nonsense grafter. Born in London, she moved to New Zealand when she was a baby (her father is a Kiwi, while her mother is Welsh), returning to the UK at the age of eight, where her passion for singing became apparent. At 20, she won a place in a pop group, only to lose it for being “too old”. While many might have thrown in the towel at this point, it only motivated Kerslake further.
Discovering that Gary Barlow was recording at a studio in west London, and reasoning that he seemed like a nice bloke, she decided to make the journey from her home in Surrey with a demo CD. She did this journey every day for six weeks, handing over 40 discs of her singing the likes of Pie Jesu and Ave Maria. It got his attention, and he signed her to his new record label.
Today the soprano has sung for the Royal family, been nominated for a classical Brit award and is poised to release her third album. But the small matter of her boyfriend – or not so small, given that he is 6ft 2in and weighs 17 stone – means that in recent weeks she has been known as little more than a rugby Wag, with tabloid tales of a falling out with Chloe Madeley, the girlfriend of England flanker James Haskell. She rolls her eyes when I mention this. “I adore Chloe and know her really well.”
Kerslake hates the term Wag. “I’ve built everything for myself,
‘Dealing with other people’s grief when you’re diagnosed can be very difficult’
so to have it dismissed because of my relationship… I mean, I would never define you by what your husband does. If you go out with a sportsperson – actually, I mean a sportsman, because this never happens with the partners of sportswomen, they are never called “Habs”. But it feels like the only way you can not be called a Wag is to not be with a sportsman, and no force on this earth is going to make me leave Chris.”
Warm but spiky, she seems quite angry about this underplaying of her career. “You just have to deal with it. It’s lose lose, otherwise. If you’re a stay-at-home mum, you’re potentially labelled as a gold digger. If you’re like me and you work, then you’re not supportive enough. But the irony is that many of them [the partners of the England squad] will be looking after the boys long after they retire. As a classical singer, I will hopefully have a career until my sixties.” The message is clear: she will probably be supporting Robshaw once he retires in a few years time. “But nobody would ever dream of calling them what for some reason it’s acceptable to call us.”
We meet in a central London hotel to discuss her new single, Come Home, which was released just over a week ago – by pure coincidence on the same day as the Rugby World Cup started. “Sneaky businesspeople,” she says, when I mention this. “But I guess they’d be idiots not to use the momentum that’s coming from [the World Cup].”
Kerslake met Robshaw four-and-ahalf years ago, when she was singing at a rugby game. They live together in south-west London, with their dog, Rico, and because he is away for up to four months of the year, and she can be touring for three months, they try to synchronise their careers.
“The whole power couple thing wasn’t planned,” she says. “We were together three-and-a-half years before we did anything together, and only then because it meant we could go to a red carpet event and get to actually sit together for the whole evening. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s quite a luxury for us.”
It was reported last year that they were “pre-engaged”, but she tells me this was a joke, made after the actor Robert Pattinson and the singer FKA Twiggs described themselves as such. “We know [marriage] is definitely on the cards, and children are definitely in our future, but the World Cup has been all-encompassing.”
If England win, might Robshaw celebrate with an on-pitch proposal? “He would
never do that!” she shrieks. “He’s far too shy.”
They managed to spend an entire night with each other this week – no, she’s not dignifying my question over pre-match sex bans with a response – and she will probably go to stay with him at camp after tonight’s match against Wales.
What’s camp like, I wonder. Can you smell the testosterone when you arrive? “No, it’s just a hotel. There’s a spa.” Does Robshaw enjoy a post-match facial then? “No, no, no! He absolutely doesn’t.” She got in a bit of trouble a couple of years ago for saying he likes to hoover in a onesie, and she isn’t falling for that trick again, especially not on the eve of such a big match.
Which begs the question, who will she be supporting this evening? With a Welsh mother (not to mention a father from New Zealand), does she ever experience divided loyalties? “That’s a ridiculous question. Obviously I’m supporting England.” Her mother will be sitting with her at Twickenham tonight. “She will support Wales to the hilt, but it’s different when it’s potentially someone who might become your son-in-law.”
The teams may be too close to call, but one thing’s for certain: if you bump into Camilla Kerslake tonight, don’t make the mistake of calling her a Wag.
‘The irony is, we’ll be supporting the boys long after they retire’