You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, 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 familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
