You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ 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 viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
