You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, 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 (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with 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 stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
