You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
