You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! 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. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
