You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was meant as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was planning an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album 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, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ 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 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
