You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
