You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “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’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, 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 couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
