You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band the group while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
