You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. 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 says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I 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 considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. 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 flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, 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 jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
