You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, 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 spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “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. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, 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? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
