You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, 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 told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut starring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
