You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
