You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“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 thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
