You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting 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 regret to inform you but your test results have shown 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 have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
