You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
