You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ 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 found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness 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 six years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
