You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” 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.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
