You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, 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 going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
