You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning performing 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 medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group the group while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
