You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band the group while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
