You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
