You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “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 movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
