You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment 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 a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged 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.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing 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 fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
