You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
