You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
