You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band the group 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 voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
