You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, 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 speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought 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 considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
