You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” 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.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, 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 was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
