You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, 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 come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up 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
