You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
