You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band the group while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
