You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning 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 rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
