You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ 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 fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ 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 viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
