You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career starring in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
