You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
