You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was meant as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” 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.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation 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, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the stage in a musical (she was cast 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 rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
