You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly 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 accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning featuring in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
