You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with the disease. A month later she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside 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 however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
