You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing 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 were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-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 Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. 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. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio the group while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently 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. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
