You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she 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 sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking 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 biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought 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 viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically 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.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. 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.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
