You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘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 reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ 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 frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning featuring in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
