You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor 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 nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before 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, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning performing in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
