You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial 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 scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! 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.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
