You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut performing in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
