You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, 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 Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, 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.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
