You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, 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 OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
