You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album 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 jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning performing in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band the group while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
