You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. 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 giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! 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 ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band the group while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
