You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, 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 suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the stage in the production (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 irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
