You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
