You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
