You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” 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’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful 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 considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back 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 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
