You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was meant as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers 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, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! 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 OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
