You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while attending 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 automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
