You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ 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 considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, 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 long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
