You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
