You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately 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.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, 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 childhood, already starting her career featuring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
