You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has joined the trio the group while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
