You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus 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 log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ 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 lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia 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 skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band the group while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
