You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness 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 [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free 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 fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
