You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
