For the first time, Kim Gordon has discussed publicly the circumstances of her split with husband Thurston Moore, as well as revealing that she received treatment for a non-invasive form of breast cancer.

In an interview with Elle magazine, Gordon opened up about her separation from Moore after a 27-year marriage. "It ended in a kind of normal way – midlife crisis, starstruck woman," she said. The midlife crisis was apparently Moore's, and the "starstruck woman" was an unnamed associate who first entered Sonic Youth's sphere as the girlfriend of another band member. She and Moore collaborated on a "literary project" and began a relationship; Gordon discovered the affair when she stumbled across a revealing text message.

"Thurston was carrying on this whole double life with her," Gordon said. Although the two musicians went to marriage counselling, "we never got to the point where we could just get rid of [the girlfriend] so I could decide what I wanted to do", she explains. "[Thurston] was really like a lost soul." Moore moved out in 2011, and Gordon listened to a lot of hip-hop. "Rap music is really good when you're traumatised," she said. Two years later, they are not officially divorced, but both are seeing other people.

Around the same time that Gordon was coping with the "drastic change" of separation, she was diagnosed with cancer. "I'm fine," she said. "It's literally the best [cancer] you can have." DCIS is a non-invasive form of breast cancer, treated with a lumpectomy. "I didn't do radiation or anything, but I was like, 'Okay, what else is going to happen to me?'"

Since then, Gordon has gone back to touring, and formed a new band, Body/Head. They are due to perform at this year's Yoko Ono-curated Meltdown festival. "A few years ago I started to feel like I owed it to myself to really focus on doing art," Gordon said. "[Now I] have a lot of things going on."