You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do 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 contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically 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.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
