You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the fans.”
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; 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 replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ 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 answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. 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 terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group the group while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
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