You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
