You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. 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 tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
