You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
