You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, 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 “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
