You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group the group while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
