You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. 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 made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation 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 reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
