You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) 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, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
