You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. 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 expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘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 hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
