You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while living with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe 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, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
