You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, 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, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
