You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
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 familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
