You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while attending 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 automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
