You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ 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 dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group the group while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record 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 lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
