You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
