You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, 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 told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! 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 no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
